. The Street railway journal . e scheme,which would have been far preferable to the presentmovable Tower Bridge, and only one-fourth as costly,was thrown out. In 1883. Mr. Greatheads idea being still maturing, first step was to sink a shaft in the bed of the river itself,and to drive both the tunnels from the shaft. It wasabout sixty-five feet deep from the surface of the water,and penetrated far into the London clay. At this pointthe tunnels were placed one above the other, and theupper tube was driven first. These are the tunnels now inuse. As soon as they were completed, land was acquiredat
. The Street railway journal . e scheme,which would have been far preferable to the presentmovable Tower Bridge, and only one-fourth as costly,was thrown out. In 1883. Mr. Greatheads idea being still maturing, first step was to sink a shaft in the bed of the river itself,and to drive both the tunnels from the shaft. It wasabout sixty-five feet deep from the surface of the water,and penetrated far into the London clay. At this pointthe tunnels were placed one above the other, and theupper tube was driven first. These are the tunnels now inuse. As soon as they were completed, land was acquiredat the points where the stations were to be situated, andthe remainder of the tubes was constructed. Before thework was done, the company obtained power to extendits undertaking southwards as far as Stockwell, andthe whole route is shown in the map accompanying thisarticle. The original proposal was to work the road bycables, but owing to the great progress which was beingmade at that time in electric traction, it was decided to. MAP SHOWING RAPID TRANSIT ROUTES IN he proposed a deep tunnel railway from the city to thepoint on the south side of the river known as the Ele-phant & Castle, a distance of about a mile and a was the nucleus of the existing City & South Lon-don Railway. The application to Parliament for powerswas met by a storm of opposition from the Corporationof the City of London, who were apprehensive of injuryto London Bridge, and from all the local authorities alongthe route. By great good fortune, however, the bill gotthrough in 1884. The general public then said that thething was impossible, and so difficult was it to persuadeinvestors that the scheme was feasible and likely to beprofitable, that it was not until well on in the year 1886that any steps were taken to begin the actual work ofconstruction. It was then stated quite confidently thatthe whole capital of the company would not be sufficientto carry the two tunnels, one for the up, and the other
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