A NEW THAMES TUNNEL.

Southland Times, Issue 931, 10 April 1868, Page 3

A NEW THAMES TUNNEL.

; A Tecent number of the " Daily News" says :— An important engineering project, which has excited but little public attention, and for which the necessary Parliamentary sanction has not yet been obtained, is already in process of execution, namely, the tunnel or subway intended to be driven under the Thames between London Bridge and the Tower. This work is the third mode of communication below London Bridge which has been brought forward by the same company. The present project has the sanction ot the Tower authorities, and arrangements for the small portion of land on the Surrey side necessary for the approach have been already made. The new tunnel project presents, in many respects, a curious contrast with Brunell's great work at Wapping, which occupied nearly twenty years in its execution. The existing tunnel, now the property of the East London Eailway Company, is about 1250 ft. between the shafts ; the proposed railway will be about 1320 ft .; the one cost above £450,000, the other is estimated to cost the comparative trifle of £16,000. Dividend was utterly hopeless in the one case ; in the other, with only the same traffic receipts as those of the old tunnel, a dividend of 20 per cent, upon the capital is calculated on. If the estimate be not exceeded, it is possible jhat, with moderate tolls, the traffic receipts will be much greater. Mr P. Barlow, F.R.S., who is the engineer of this project, proposes that the descent and ascent to the tunnel shall be by hydraulic lifts, rimilar to those in use in the large new hotels, and that the passengers shall be conveyed from one shaft to the other in light steel omnibuses of perfect workmanship, and driven by man power upon a system of accumulating iorce. The friction will, it is expected, be so much reduced jy the exactitude of the fittings and the excellence of the materials and workmanship employed, as to make the power of one man amply sufficient for working an omnibus. The bottoms of the shafts will be on the same level, and the subway will dip in the centre to give speed, and to accumulate force for the last half of the journey.