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It was the dawn of 1863,

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and London’s [br]not-yet-opened subway system,

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the first of its kind in the world, [br]had the city in an uproar.

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Digging a hole under the city [br]and putting a railroad in it

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seemed the stuff of dreams.

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Pub drinkers scoffed at the idea

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and a local minister accused the railway[br]company of trying to break into hell.

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Most people simply thought the project,

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which cost more than[br]100 million dollars in today’s money,

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would never work.

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But it did.

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On January 10, 1863,

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30,000 people ventured underground [br]to travel on the world’s first subway

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on a four-mile stretch of line in London.

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After three years of construction[br]and a few setbacks,

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the Metropolitan Railway [br]was ready for business.

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The city’s officials were much relieved.

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They’d been desperate to find a way

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to reduce the terrible [br]congestion on the roads.

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London, at the time the world’s largest [br]and most prosperous city,

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was in a permanent state of gridlock,

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with carts,

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costermongers,

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cows,

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and commuters jamming the roads.

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It’d been a Victorian visionary, [br]Charles Pearson,

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who first thought of putting railways [br]under the ground.

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He’d lobbied for underground trains [br]throughout the 1840s,

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but opponents thought the idea[br]was impractical

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since the railroads at the time [br]only had short tunnels under hills.

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How could you get a railway [br]through the center of a city?

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The answer was a simple system [br]called "cut and cover."

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Workers had to dig a huge trench,

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construct a tunnel out of brick archways,

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and then refill the hole [br]over the newly built tunnel.

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Because this was disruptive

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and required the demolition [br]of buildings above the tunnels,

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most of the line went[br]under existing roads.

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Of course, there were accidents.

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On one occasion, a heavy rainstorm [br]flooded the nearby sewers

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and burst through the excavation,

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delaying the project by several months.

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But as soon as [br]the Metropolitan Railway opened,

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Londoners rushed in [br]to ride the new trains.

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The Metropolitan quickly became [br]a vital part of London’s transport system.

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Additional lines were soon built,

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and new suburbs grew around the stations.

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Big department stores opened [br]next to the railroad,

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and the railway company [br]even created attractions,

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like a 30-story Ferris wheel in Earls[br]Court to bring in tourists by train.

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Within 30 years,

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London’s subway system covered [br]80 kilometers,

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with lines in the center of town[br]running in tunnels,

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and suburban trains operating [br]on the surface, often on embankments.

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But London was still growing,

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and everyone wanted [br]to be connected to the system.

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By the late 1880s,

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the city had become too dense with[br]buildings, sewers, and electric cables

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for the "cut and cover" technique,

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so a new system had to be devised.

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Using a machine [br]called the Greathead Shield,

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a team of just 12 workers could [br]bore through the earth,

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carving deep underground tunnels [br]through the London clay.

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These new lines, called tubes,[br]were at varying depths,

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but usually about 25 meters deeper than [br]the "cut and cover" lines.

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This meant their construction [br]didn’t disturb the surface,

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and it was possible [br]to dig under buildings.

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The first tube line, [br]the City and South London,

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opened in 1890 and proved so successful

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that half a dozen more lines [br]were built in the next 20 years.

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This clever new technology was even used [br]to burrow several lines

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under London’s river, the Thames.

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By the early 20th century,

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Budapest,

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Berlin,

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Paris,

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and New York

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had all built subways of their own.

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And today, with more than 160 cities [br]in 55 countries

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using underground rails [br]to combat congestion,

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we can thank Charles Pearson[br]and the Metropolitan Railway

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for getting us started on the right track.