FROM THE HISTORY
How the world's first metro system was built in London? 150 years ago the world's first underground transport tunnel opened in London: the Tower Subway. A rail car shuttled back and forth under the river between the banks of the Thames - a much admired technical innovation in 1870. Even though the narrow iron tube was only used for a few months, it set a milestone in the history of transport. Seven years earlier, the Metropolitan Railway had opened, connecting Paddington and King's Cross stations with central London and leading through a brick tunnel. But the Tower Subway was the first purpose-built underground transportation tunnel and thus started a new era of the transportation. The narrow tube of the Tower Subway was not the first tunnel under the Thames. Already in 1825, the construction works for the Thames Tunnel had been started, which finally opened in 1843 after endless difficulties. It connects the city districts Rotherhithe and Wapping and is approximately 10 metres wide and 366 metres long. This first tunnel under a river in the world was a sensation back then and a great visitor attraction, too.
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METRO RAIL TODAY MAY 2021
Inspired by the Shipworm The engineer Marc Isambard Brunel (1769-1849), together with Thomas Cochrane, had developed a tunnel driving shield for this purpose. Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald (1775-1860), was a legendary British naval hero. This makes the anecdote that the sailor should have been inspired by the shipworm sound quite plausible. This species of mussel (Teredo navalis) drills its shell upside down into the wood and has many a ship on its conscience. Brunel and Cochrane applied for a patent for their tunnelling shield in 1818 (GB 4204/1818). This was a construction made of cast iron in which the miners could dig in separate chambers at the tunnel front. From time to time the shield was driven by a huge mechanism and the tunnel surface behind it was lined with bricks. The basic concept of the tunnelling shield still determines tunnel construction today. The Brunels: pioneers of modern transportation Marc Brunel ruined his health with the Thames Tunnel. His son Isambard Kingdom (1806-1859) took over the management of the difficult pioneer project (and became an even more famous engineer than his father as a railway and ship designer). Originally planned for horse-drawn carriages, Thames Tunnel was first opened to pedestrians, and later to the trains of the London Underground, which still uses the historic tunnel today.
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