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World's first metro system - London

 


At the dawn of 1863, London hadn't opened its subway system.  London's metro builder roared, digging a hole below the city and started laying railroads. Fun Fact: a local minister complained to the construction company of trying to break into hell. Most civilians believed that this project worth 100 million dollars of today's estimation simply didn't work. But it did. On January 10, 1863, thirty thousand people speculated underground to travel on the world's first subway on a four-mile stretch rail. After three years of construction and few setbacks, the metro railway started to operate. The officials were a bit relieved. They were very desperate to reduce the traffic on the roads.


London in the 60s and 70s was the world's largest and most prosperous city and was in a permanent state of catastrophe because of traffic.  Charles Pearson first thought of putting railways under the ground. He had persuaded people for underground trains throughout the 1840s, but the opposition thought it was impossible. How could you get a railway through the center of a city? The simple answer is to cut and to cover. Workers had to dig a huge hole, and construct a tunnel and fill the remaining gaps. As this process required the demolition of buildings, most of the rails went under the existing roads. Of course, there were accidents. On one occasion flood filled the sewer and burst through the excavation delaying the project several months. But as soon as the metro was opened, people started riding the new trains. The metro became a vital part of London's transport system. Additional lines were soon built and new suburbs grew around the stations. Soon departmental stores were built near railway stations. After 30 years, London's subway system covered 80 kilometers. But London was still growing and everyone wanted to be connected to the system. By the 1880s, the city had become too dense with buildings, sewers, and electric cables so it was hard to cut and cover. So a new system had to be devised.



Using a machine called the Greathead Shield, a team of just 12 workers could bore through the earth, carving deep underground tunnels through the London clay. But new tunnels called tubes were made of varying lengths from the surface. Usually, about 25 meters deeper than the cut and cover made lines. The Greathead Shield method didn't disturb the surface and it was possible to dig under buildings. The first tube lines were opened in 1890 and proved so successful that a dozen more lines were built in the next 20 years. This new technology was used to borrow several tubes under London's River Thames. 


Today, more than 160 cities in 55 countries use underground rails to combat traffic. We can thank Charles Pearson and the Metropolitan Railway for getting us on the right track. 


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