2-694-063 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'Driving the Tunnel for the Waterloo and City Railway', (c1897). Scene underground during excavations for London's transport system. 'The illustration represents the shield which protects the excavators. This is from time to time driven forward, and another section of the iron lining of the tunnel is inserted piece by piece between it and the sections already completed. Compressed air is used in that portion of the tunnel which is beneath the river to prevent the water entering. The Blackwall Tunnel, opened by the Prince of Wales on 22 May 1897, was constructed similarly.' From Sixty Years A Queen: The Story of Her Majesty's Reign, by Sir Herbert Maxwell. [Harmsworth Bros, Limited, London, c1897]