3-012-026 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Charing-Cross railway station, as seen from the river [Thames, London], 1864. 'This magnificent structure, with a semicircular roof of iron and glass, far exceeds in span the much-admired roofs of the Great Northern Railway at King's-cross, which are only 105 ft., while these are nearly 200 ft. The passenger platforms at present in use project beyond the limits of this glass roof upon a part of the bridge, which widens out from the ordinary breadth of four lines of rail into a fanlike form, containing seven lines...The contract was enormously heavy, considering the short distance of the line - scarcely two miles...At present trains run from Charing-cross every quarter of an hour, beginning at ten minutes past seven in the morning, up to twenty-five minutes past twelve at night; and there are 140 journeys made daily to and from Greenwich, and thirty-four on the Mid Kent line. On the 1st of March the line, it is expected, will be open for North Kent traffic; and upon the 1st of May will be in working order throughout for South-Eastern and Continental business'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.