The Tube

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at the world's oldest subway in London and how it followed the development of the above-ground railway system in England and then went underground for a rapid transit system for the city long before the term "rapid transit" had been devised. It outlines the continuous growth and expansion of the network from the first underground railway which opened by the Metropolitan Railway Company on 10th January 1863.

From the Paper:

"The act of tunneling under the Thames required a different engineering approach from the cut-and-cover method. Building this part of the system involved deep-level excavation at the foot of vertical shafts and was similar to coal mining. Since much of London is built on clay, and since clay is easy to excavate and tunnel through, work was completely relatively soon on the next significant step in the development of London's Underground railways--the twin-tunnel City and South London Railway, which ran for 5.2 km (3.25 miles) from King William Street in the City under the River Thames to Stockwell. This was intended to be a cable-hauled railway, but when it opened in 1890, it was the world's first deep-level electric railway. This and similar lines built since have since always been known as tube railways. The Waterloo & City Railway was also constructed under the Thames River and was opened in 1898. Two years later, the Central London Railway opened."

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• Analytical Essay # 31852 : "Tube of Plenty"

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