Building the New London Tubes: Incredible Video (LONG) and story

Like a lot of people I know, I am something of a  railroad and subway buff..

One of my complaints for the past several years is how NYC seems to have lost the ability to build subways...I have run articles on how the NYC subway system was built before and I will run them again, especially any update I can find on the apparently hopeless Second Avenue subway, a relatively short, simple stretch that MAY be completed within my lifetime.

WHY is it so different in other cities? Here is a fantastic video on what lies beneath London's exterior which starts with its present underground project. It makes everything New York does seem so inept..

Of course, London has this unusual compacted clay underneath and NYC has bedrock. They both have a maze of gas, steam, electric, cable ,water and other systems underground.

Just watch the first six or seven minutes or so of this video and hang on to your hat-- it is called "Stripping London"--the whole video runs over 40 minutes and I don't expect you to sit still for that, just watch the opening several minutes at least!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th29KxoWtBA

This short piece that follows is from "Building Big" on the internet

  London Underground
Choose another wonder

	Click photo for larger image.

Vital Statistics:
Location: London, England
Completion Date: 1863 (first line)
Length: 19,800 feet (3.75 miles)
Purpose: Subway
Setting: Soft ground
Materials: Cast iron, brick
Engineer(s): Sir John Fowler
Shortly after the opening of the Thames Tunnel, Parliament authorized construction of the first subway system in the world, the London Underground. Work began in 1860 on the first stretch of the underground subway, the Metropolitan Railway. By all accounts, it was a royal mess. Tunnel diggers used the cut and cover method: they carved huge trenches in the streets, lined the trenches with brick, covered the trenches with arch roofs, and then restored the street above. This sloppy method paralyzed traffic and made canyons out of city avenues, but it was a huge success. The new subway carried more than nine million people in its first year!

Click photo for larger image.

Soon, Londoners were craving more, and they got it. This time, with the help of James Henry Greathead's tunnel shield, London engineers could tunnel under the city without completely destroying the streets above. Greathead's round iron shield supported the soft soil as it moved forward and carved a perfectly round hole hundreds of feet below London's bustling city streets. Inside the shield, tunnel workers laid cast-iron segments end to end. These segments eventually formed a stiff, waterproof tube, perfect for subways. Following London's lead, New York, Boston, Budapest, and Paris soon boasted subways of their own.
Here's how this tunnel stacks up against some of the longest tunnels in the world.
(total length, in feet)

London Underground 19,800' (3.75 miles)

Fast Facts:

• The earliest lines on the London Underground follow the direction of major streets and rarely pass under buildings. This is because many Londoners feared that the tunnel would undermine the foundations of the city's buildings.
• The trains in the London Underground were the first to be powered by electric engines.
• During World Wars I and II, the London Underground subway stations were used as air-raid shelters.