Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

AT THE BOTTOM OF A SHAFT, SHOWING THE STAIRCASES LEADING TO THE THAMES TUNNEL. (From the Rischgitz Collection.) THE THAMES TUNNEL. The driving of this famous Tunnel safely be described as one of Times. under the Thames by Brunel the elder may the Greatest Engineering Feats of Modern THERE are thirteen tunnels under the Thames, and this total will be in- creased in the near future. We have already described the largest and most recent of these tunnels—the monstrous tube which burrows under the river-bed from Rotherhithe to Shadwell. In this chapter we shall take hold of the other end of the story of Thames tunnelling, as an account of the. Thames Tunnel—Marc Isam- bard Brunel’s tunnel, built in the early part of last century —can no more be denied a place among the world’s engineering wonders than could King The Thames Tunnel an Extraordinary Engineering Feat. Charles’s head be excluded from the thoughts of poor Mr. Dick. This not merely because the tunnel was the first driven under the Thames, or because a tunnelling shield was first used for its construction—facts which, taken on their own merits, would entitle it to a place. So many years have passed since the opening of the tunnel that this generation is largely unaware of the enormous difficulties which attended the work, and of the indomi- table courage and resource shown by Brunel and his subordinates in combating them. The submarine tunnel-maker of to-day has at his service the Greathead shield and rotary digger, the supporting force of compressed air, applica- i