Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

THE ROTHERHITHE TUNNEL. BY E. H. TABOR, M.Inst.C.E., Resident Engineer in Charge of the Construction. A description of the largest iron=lined subaqueous Tunnel in the world. The opening of this new passage under the Thames has greatly facilitated road traffic between the Eastern and South=eastern Districts of London. OPEN APPROACH. A ” is the “ dumpling ” of earth left while the side walls were built. obvious at that time that the East End of London was not being fairly treated, as no free communication across the river existed below Lon- don Bridge. During the last thirty years, however, nearly all the addi- tional accommodation provided has been for the benefit of the East End. Thus, a free steam-ferry be- tween Woolwich and North. Wool- wich, a tunnel for pedestrian and vehicular traffic between Blackwall and Greenwich Marshes, and a tunnel for pedestrian traffic between Greenwich and the Isle of Dogs were opened in 1889, 1897, and 1902 re- spectively. To these facilities the Rotherhithe Tunnel was added in 1908. The provision of better means of communication across the river in the neighbourhood of Rotherhithe was Previous proposed frequently Schemes, during the last cen- tury, a ferry having been estab- lished by Act of Parliament in the year 1754 and a tunnel actually started in 1805, but never completed. The Thames Tunnel— the construction of which will form the sub- ject of a later chapter—is only about half a IN the year 1877 the bridges crossing the river Thames in the western part of London were freed from tolls by the Metropolitan Board of Works, the predeces- sors of the London County Council. It was