Tower Subway

The Tower Subway is a 1869/70 erbauter tunnel under the River Thames in central London, close to Tower of London. It runs from the Tower Hill on the north side of Vine Lane on the south. In this tunnel wrong the first underground railway in the world, which was built in a deep- tube. The first was built in open cut subway was the Metropolitan Railway in 1863.

History

Construction of the tunnel

The Tower Subway was built in 1869-1870 under the direction of James Henry Greathead, who had developed together with Peter W. Barlow, the first tubbing welded steel. The input shaft on the Tower Hill is 60 feet ( 18.29 meters ) deep, the one on Vine Lane 50 feet (15.24 meters). The minimum distance between the tube and the river bed is 22 feet ( 6.71 meters).

First tube metro

The plans called for the use of the Tower Subway by an underground railway. The first tube railway in the world was opened on August 2, 1870 and was the first underground railway in the world, which was built in a deep- tube. A small wagon (called by the tunnel operators omnibus ) shuttled between the two banks by the single-track tunnel ( 411.48 meters) and a diameter of 7 feet ( 2.13 meters ) had a length of 450 yards; the track width was 2 ½ feet ( 762 mm). Similarly, a funicular railway pulled a steel cable the car through the tube, as the drive were two stationary steam engines with a power output of 4 hp. The drive took 70 seconds. However, the system never could be run profitably, because the only car offered only accommodate ten people. There was no siding, no second car could run in the tunnel.

Pedestrian tunnel

In December 1870, the operation was discontinued. The tunnel was a light and was instead released as a pedestrian connection on 24 December 1870. An average of 20,000 people a week used the tunnel and were paying a toll of half a penny each. Shortly after opening the overlying Tower Bridge in September 1894, the Tower Subway was closed for lack of customers.

Today's use

At the beginning of the 1920s the tunnel was given a new significance as a route for the operated by the London Hydraulic Power Company, as well as hydraulic lines for drinking water supply. While the drinking water pipes are still in operation today, telecommunication connections are performed in place of the obsolete hydraulic lines now. Today is also the little entrance building at Tower Hill received.

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