ROBERT STEPHENSON CONSTRUCTS THE LONDON AND BIRMINGHAM RAILWAY.
Of the numerous extensive projects which followed close upon the
completion of the Liverpool and Manchester line and the locomotive
triumph at Rainhill, that of a railway between London and Birmingham
was the most important. The scheme originated at the latter place
in 1830. Two committees were formed, and two plans were proposed.
One was of a line to London by way of Oxford, and the other by way
of Coventry. The object of the promoters of both schemes being to
secure the advantages of railway communication with the metropolis,
they wisely determined to combine their strength to secure it. They
resolved to call George Stephenson to their aid, and requested him
to advise them as to the two schemes which were before them. After a
careful examination of the country, Stephenson reported in favor of
the Coventry route. The Lancashire gentlemen, who were the principal
subscribers to the project, having confidence in his judgment,
supported his decision, and the line recommended by him was adopted
accordingly.
At the meeting of gentlemen held at Birmingham to determine upon the
appointment of the engineer for the railway, there was a strong party
in favor of associating with Stephenson a gentleman with whom he had
been brought into serious collision in the course of the Liverpool
and Manchester undertaking. When the offer was made to him that
he should be joint engineer with the other, he requested leave to
retire and consider the proposal with his son. The two walked into
St. Philip's church-yard, which adjoined the place of meeting, and
debated the proposal. The father was in favor of accepting it. His
struggle heretofore had been so hard that he could not bear the idea
of missing so promising an opportunity of professional advancement.
But the son, foreseeing the jealousies and heartburnings which the
joint engineership would most probably create, recommended his
father to decline the connection. George adopted the suggestion, and,
returning to the committee, announced to them his decision, on which
the promoters decided to appoint him the engineer of the undertaking in
conjunction with his son.
This line, like the Liverpool and Manchester, was very strongly
opposed, especially by the land-owners. Numerous pamphlets were
published, calling on the public to "beware of the bubbles," and
holding up the promoters of railways to ridicule. They were compared
to St. John Long and similar quacks, and pronounced fitter for Bedlam
than to be left at large. The canal proprietors, land-owners, and
road trustees made common cause against them. The failure of railways
was confidently predicted--indeed, it was elaborately attempted to be
proved that they had failed; and it was industriously spread abroad
that the locomotive engines, having been found useless and highly
dangerous on the Liverpool and Manchester line, were immediately to
be abandoned in favor of horses--a rumor which the directors of the
company thought it necessary publicly to contradict.
Public meetings were held in all the counties through which the line
would pass between London and Birmingham, at which the project was
denounced, and strong resolutions against it were passed. The attempt
was made to conciliate the landlords by explanations, but all such
efforts proved futile, the owners of nearly seven eighths of the land
being returned as dissentients. "I remember," said Robert Stephenson,
describing the opposition, "that we called one day on Sir Astley
Cooper, the eminent surgeon, in the hope of overcoming his aversion
to the railway. He was one of our most inveterate and influential
opponents. His country house at Berkhampstead was situated near the
intended line, which passed through part of his property. We found
a courtly, fine-looking old gentleman, of very stately manners, who
received us kindly, and heard all we had to say in favor of the
project. But he was quite inflexible in his opposition to it. No
deviation or improvement that we could suggest had any effect in
conciliating him. He was opposed to railways generally, and to this in
particular. 'Your scheme,' said he, 'is preposterous in the extreme. It
is of so extravagant a character as to be positively absurd. Then look
at the recklessness of your proceedings! You are proposing to cut up
our estates in all directions for the purpose of making an unnecessary
road. Do you think for one moment of the destruction of property
involved by it? Why, gentlemen, if this sort of thing be permitted to
go on, you will in a very few years _destroy the noblesse_!' We left
the honorable baronet without having produced the slightest effect upon
him, excepting perhaps, it might be, increased exasperation against
our scheme. I could not help observing to my companions as we left the
house, 'Well, it is really provoking to find one who has been made a
"Sir" for cutting that wen out of George the Fourth's neck, charging us
with contemplating the destruction of the _noblesse_ because we propose
to confer upon him the benefits of a railroad.'"
Such being the opposition of the owners of land, it was with the
greatest difficulty that an accurate survey of the line could be made.
At one point the vigilance of the land-owners and their servants was
such that the surveyors were effectually prevented taking the levels
by the light of day, and it was only at length accomplished at night
by means of dark lanterns. There was one clergyman, who made such
alarming demonstrations of his opposition, that the extraordinary
expedient was resorted to of surveying his property during the time he
was engaged in the pulpit. This was managed by having a strong force of
surveyors in readiness to commence their operations, who entered the
clergyman's grounds on one side the moment they saw him fairly off them
on the other. By a well-organized and systematic arrangement, each man
concluded his allotted task just as the reverend gentleman concluded
his sermon; so that, before he left the church, the deed was done, and
the sinners had all decamped. Similar opposition was offered at many
other points, but ineffectually. The laborious application of Robert
Stephenson was such that, in examining the country to ascertain the
best line, he walked the whole distance between London and Birmingham
upward of twenty times.
When the bill went before the committee of the Commons in 1832, a
formidable array of evidence was produced. All the railway experience
of the day was brought to bear in support of the measure, and all
that interested opposition could do was set in motion against it. The
necessity for an improved mode of communication between London and
Birmingham was clearly demonstrated, and the engineering evidence was
regarded as quite satisfactory. Not a single fact was proved against
the utility of the measure, and the bill passed the committee, and
afterward the third reading in the Commons, by large majorities.
It was then sent to the Lords, and went into committee, when a similar
mass of testimony was again gone through. But scarcely had the
proceedings been opened when it became clear that the fate of the bill
had been determined before a word of the evidence had been heard. At
that time the committees were open to all peers; and the promoters of
the measure found, to their dismay, many of the lords who were avowed
opponents of the measure as land-owners, sitting as judges to decide
its fate. Their principal object seemed to be to bring the proceedings
to a termination as quickly as possible. An attempt at negotiation was
made in the course of the proceedings in committee, but failed, and
the bill was thrown out on the motion of Earl Brownlow, one of Lady
Bridgewater's trustees; but, though carried by a large majority, the
vote was far from unanimous.
As the result had been foreseen, measures were taken to neutralize the
effect of this decision as regarded future operations. Not less than
£32,000 had been expended in preliminary and Parliamentary expenses
up to this stage; but the promoters determined not to look back, and
forthwith made arrangements for prosecuting the bill in a future
session. A meeting of the friends of the measure was held in London,
attended by members of both houses of Parliament and by leading bankers
and merchants, when a series of resolutions was passed, declaring
their conviction of the necessity for the railway, and deprecating the
opposition by which it had been encountered. Lord Wharncliffe, who had
acted as the chairman of the Lords' Committee, attributed the failure
of the bill entirely to the land-owners; and Mr. Glyn subsequently
declared that they had tried to smother it by the high price which
they demanded for their property. It was determined to reintroduce
the bill in the following session (1833), and measures were taken to
prosecute it vigorously. Strange to say, the bill on this occasion
passed both houses silently and almost without opposition. The mystery
was afterward solved by the appearance of a circular issued by the
directors of the company, in which it was stated that they had opened
negotiations with the most influential of their opponents; that
"these measures had been successful to a greater extent than they had
ventured to anticipate; and the most active and formidable had been
conciliated." An instructive commentary on the mode by which these
noble lords and influential landed proprietors had been "conciliated"
was found in the simple fact that the estimate for land was nearly
trebled, and that the owners were paid about £750,000 for what had been
originally estimated at £250,000. The total expenses of carrying the
bill through Parliament amounted to the enormous sum of £72,868.
The land-owners having been thus "conciliated," the promoters of the
measure were at length permitted to proceed with the formation of their
great highway. Robert Stephenson was, with his father's sanction,
appointed engineer-in-chief of the line, at a salary of £1500 a
year. He was now a married man, having become united to Miss Frances
Sanderson in 1829, since which his home had been at Newcastle, near to
the works there; but, on receiving his new appointment, he removed with
his wife to London, to a house on Haverstock Hill, where he resided
during the execution of the Birmingham Railway.
Steps were at once taken to proceed with the working survey, to
prepare the working drawings, and arrange for the prosecution of the
undertaking. Eighty miles of the line were shortly under construction;
the works were let (within the estimates) to contractors, who were
necessarily, for the most part, new to such work. The business of
railway construction was not then well understood. There were no
leviathans among contractors as now, able to undertake the formation
of a line of railway hundreds of miles in length; they were, for the
most part, men of small capital and slender experience. Their tools and
machinery were imperfect; they did not understand the economy of time
and piece labor; the workmen, as well as their masters, had still to
learn their trade; and every movement of an engineer was attended with
outlays, which were the inevitable result of a new system of things,
but which each succeeding day's experience tended to diminish.
[Illustration: (Map of London and Birmingham Railway)]
The difficulties encountered in the construction of this railway were
thus very great, the most formidable of them originating in the
character of the works themselves. Extensive tunnels had to be driven
through unknown strata, and miles of underground excavation had to be
carried out in order to form a level road from valley to valley under
the intervening ridges. This kind of work was the newest of all to
the contractors of that day. Robert Stephenson's experience in the
collieries of the North rendered him well fitted to grapple with such
difficulties; yet even he, with all his practical knowledge, could
scarcely have foreseen the serious obstacles which he was called
upon to encounter in executing the formidable cuttings, embankments,
and tunnels of the London and Birmingham Railway. It would be an
uninteresting, as it would be a fruitless task, to attempt to describe
these works in detail; but a general outline of their extraordinary
character and extent may not be out of place.
The length of railway to be constructed between London and Birmingham
was 112-1/2 miles. The line crossed a series of low-lying districts,
separated from each other by considerable ridges of hills, and it
was the object of the engineer to cross the valleys at as high an
elevation, and the hills at as low a one as possible. The high ground
was therefore cut down, and the "stuff" led into embankments, in some
places of great height and extent, so as to form a road upon as level a
plane as was considered practicable for the working of the locomotive
engine. In some places the high grounds were passed in open cuttings,
while in others it was necessary to bore through them in tunnels with
deep cuttings at either end.
The most formidable excavations on the line are those at Tring, Denbigh
Hall, and Blisworth. The Tring cutting is an immense chasm across
the great chalk ridge of Ivinghoe. It is two miles and a half long,
and for a quarter of a mile is fifty-seven feet deep. A million and a
half cubic yards of chalk and earth were taken out of this cutting by
means of horse-runs, and deposited in spoil-banks, besides the immense
quantity run into the embankment north of the cutting, forming a solid
mound nearly six miles long and about thirty feet high. Passing over
the Denbigh Hall cutting, and the Wolverton embankment of a mile and a
half in length across the valley of the Ouse, we come to the excavation
at Blisworth, a brief description of which will give the reader an idea
of one of the most formidable kinds of railway work.
[Illustration: BLISWORTH CUTTING. [By Percival Skelton.]]
The Blisworth Cutting is a mile and a half long, in some places
sixty-five feet deep, passing through earth, stiff clay, and hard
rock. Not less than a million cubic yards of these materials were dug,
quarried, and blasted out of it. One third of the cutting was stone,
and beneath the stone lay a thick bed of clay, under which were found
beds of loose shale so full of water that almost constant pumping was
necessary at many points to enable the works to proceed. For a year
and a half the contractor went on fruitlessly contending with these
difficulties, and at length he was compelled to abandon the adventure.
The engineer then took the works in hand for the company, and they
were vigorously proceeded with. Steam-engines were set to work to pump
out the water; two locomotives were put on, one at either end of the
cutting, to drag away the excavated rock and clay; and eight hundred
men and boys were employed along the work, in digging, wheeling, and
blasting, besides a large number of horses. Some idea of the extent of
the blasting operations may be formed from the fact that twenty-five
barrels of gunpowder were exploded weekly, the total quantity used
in forming this one excavation being about three thousand barrels.
Considerable difficulty was experienced in supporting the bed of rock
cut through, which overlaid the clay and shale along either side of
the cutting. It was found necessary to hold it up by strong retaining
walls, to prevent the clay bed from bulging out, and these walls were
farther supported by a strong invert--that is, an arch placed in an
inverted position under the road--thus binding together the walls on
both sides. Behind the retaining walls, a drift or horizontal drain was
run to enable the water to escape, and occasional openings were left
in the walls themselves for the same purpose. The work was at length
brought to a successful completion, but the extraordinary difficulties
encountered in executing the undertaking had the effect of greatly
increasing the cost of this portion of the railway.
The Tunnels on the line are eight in number, their total length being
7336 yards. The first high ground encountered was Primrose Hill, where
the stiff London clay was passed through for a distance of about 1164
yards. The clay was close, compact, and dry, more difficult to work
than stone itself. It was entirely free from water; but the absorbing
properties of the clay were such that when exposed to the air it
swelled out rapidly. Hence an unusual thickness of brick lining was
found necessary; and the engineer afterward informed the author that
for some time he entertained an apprehension lest the pressure should
force in the brick-work altogether, as afterward happened in the case
of the short Preston Brook tunnel upon the Grand Junction Railway,
constructed by his father. The pressure behind the brick-work was
so great that it made the face of the bricks to fly off in minute
chips, which covered his clothes while he was inspecting the work. The
materials used in the building were, however, of excellent quality, and
the work was happily brought to a completion without accident.
At Watford the chalk ridge was penetrated by a tunnel about 1800 yards
long, and at Northchurch, Lindslade, and Stowe Hill there were other
tunnels of minor extent. But the chief difficulty of the undertaking
was the execution of that under the Kilsby ridge. Though not the
largest, this is in many respects one of the most interesting works of
the kind. It is about two thousand four hundred yards long, and runs at
an average depth of about a hundred and sixty feet below the surface.
The ridge under which it extends is of considerable extent, the famous
battle of Naseby having been fought upon one of the spurs of the same
high ground, about seven miles to the eastward.
[Illustration: LINE OF THE SHAFTS OVER KILSBY TUNNEL. [By Percival
Skelton.]]
Previous to the letting of the contract, the character of the
underground soil was fairly tested by trial shafts, which indicated
that it consisted of shale of the lower oolite, and the works were
let accordingly. But they had scarcely been commenced when it was
discovered that, at an interval between the two trial-shafts, which had
been sunk about two hundred yards from the south end of the tunnel,
there existed an extensive quicksand under a bed of clay forty feet
thick, which the borings had escaped in the most singular manner. At
the bottom of one of these shafts, the excavation and building of the
tunnel were proceeding, when the roof at one part suddenly gave way,
a deluge of water burst in, and the party of workmen with the utmost
difficulty escaped with their lives. They were only saved by means of
a raft, on which they were towed by one of the engineers swimming with
the rope in his mouth to the lower end of the shaft, out of which they
were safely lifted to the daylight.
The works were of course at that point immediately stopped. The
contractor who had undertaken the construction of the tunnel was
so overwhelmed by the calamity that, though he was relieved by the
company from his engagement, he took to his bed and shortly after died.
Pumping-engines were erected for the purpose of draining off the water,
but for a long time it prevailed, and sometimes even rose in the shaft.
The question arose whether, in the face of so formidable a difficulty,
the works should be proceeded with or abandoned. Robert Stephenson sent
over to Alton Grange for his father, and the two took serious counsel
together. George was in favor of pumping out the water from the top by
powerful engines erected over each shaft, until the water was fairly
mastered. Robert concurred in that view, and, although other engineers
who were consulted pronounced strongly against the practicability of
the scheme and advised the abandonment of the enterprise, the directors
authorized him to proceed, and powerful steam-engines were ordered to
be constructed and delivered without loss of time.
In the mean time Robert suggested to his father the expediency of
running a drift along the heading from the south end of the tunnel,
with the view of draining off the water in that way. George said he
thought it would scarcely answer, but that it was worth a trial, at all
events until the pumping-engines were got ready. Robert accordingly
gave orders for the drift to be proceeded with. The excavators were
immediately set to work, and they had nearly reached the quicksand,
when one day, while the engineer, his assistants, and the workmen were
clustered about the open entrance of the drift-way, they heard a sudden
roar as of distant thunder. It was hoped that the water had burst
in--for all the workmen were out of the drift--and that the sand-bed
would now drain itself off in a natural way. Instead of which, very
little water made its appearance, and on examining the inner end of the
drift, it was found that the loud noise had been caused by the sudden
discharge into it of an immense mass of sand, which had completely
choked up the passage, and thus prevented the water from draining off.
The engineer now found that nothing remained but to sink numerous
additional shafts over the line of the tunnel at the points at which
it crossed the quicksand, and endeavor to master the water by sheer
force of engines and pumps. The engines, which were shortly erected,
possessed an aggregate power of 160 horses; and they went on pumping
for eight months, emptying out an almost incredible quantity of water.
It was found that the water, with which the bed of sand extending
over many miles was charged, was in a great degree held back by the
particles of the sand itself, and that it could only percolate through
at a certain average rate. It appeared in its flow to take a slanting
direction to the suction of the pumps, the angle of inclination
depending upon the coarseness or fineness of the sand, and regulating
the time of the flow. Hence the distribution of the pumping power
at short intervals along the line of the tunnel had a much greater
effect than the concentration of that power at any one place. It soon
appeared that the water had found its master. Protected by the pumps,
which cleared a space for engineering operations--carried on, as it
were, amid two almost perpendicular walls of water and sand on either
side--the workmen proceeded with the building of the tunnel at numerous
points. Every exertion was used to wall in the dangerous parts as
quickly as possible, the excavators and bricklayers laboring night
and day until the work was finished. Even while under the protection
of the immense pumping power above described, it often happened that
the bricks were scarcely covered with cement ready for the setting ere
they were washed quite clean by the streams of water which poured from
overhead. The men were accordingly under the necessity of holding over
their work large whisks of straw and other appliances to protect the
bricks and cement at the moment of setting.
The quantity of water pumped out of the sand-bed during eight months of
this incessant pumping averaged two thousand gallons per minute, raised
from an average depth of 120 feet. It is difficult to form an adequate
idea of the bulk of water thus raised, but it may be stated that if
allowed to flow for three hours only, it would fill a lake one acre
square to the depth of one foot, and if allowed to flow for an entire
day it would fill the lake to over eight feet in depth, or sufficient
to float a vessel of a hundred tons' burden. The water pumped out of
the tunnel while the work was in progress would be nearly equivalent to
the contents of the Thames at high water between London and Woolwich.
It is a curious circumstance, that notwithstanding the quantity of
water thus removed, the level of the surface in the tunnel was only
lowered about two and a half to three inches per week, showing the vast
area of the quicksand, which probably extended along the entire ridge
of land under which the railway passed.
The cost of the line was greatly increased by the difficulties thus
encountered at Kilsby. The original estimate for the tunnel was only
£99,000; but by the time it was finished it had cost about £100 per
lineal yard forward, or a total of nearly £300,000. The expenditure
on the other parts of the line also greatly exceeded the amount first
set down by the engineer, and, before the railway was complete, it
had been more than doubled. The land cost three times more than the
estimate, and the claims for compensation were enormous. Although the
contracts were let within the estimates, very few of the contractors
were able to finish them without the assistance of the company, and
many became bankrupt. Speaking of the difficulties encountered during
the construction of the line, Robert Stephenson subsequently observed
to us: "After the works were let, wages rose, the prices of materials
of all kinds rose, and the contractors, many of whom were men of
comparatively small capital, were thrown on their beam-ends. Their
calculations as to expenses and profits were completely upset. Let
me just go over the list. There was Jackson, who took the Primrose
Hill contract--he failed. Then there was the next length--Nowells;
then Copeland and Harding; north of them Townsend, who had the Tring
cutting; next Norris, who had Stoke Hammond; then Soars; then Hughes: I
think all of these broke down, or at least were helped through by the
directors. Then there was that terrible contract of the Kilsby Tunnel,
which broke the Nowells, and killed one of them. The contractors to the
north of Kilsby were more fortunate, though some of them pulled through
only with the greatest difficulty. Of the eighteen contracts in which
the line was originally let, only seven were completed by the original
contractors. Eleven firms were ruined by their contracts, which were
relet to others at advanced prices, or were carried on and finished by
the company. The principal cause of increase in the expense, however,
was the enlargement of the stations. It appeared that we had greatly
under-estimated the traffic, and it accordingly became necessary to
spend more and more money for its accommodation, until I think I am
within the mark when I say that the expenditure on this account alone
exceeded by eight or ten fold the amount of the Parliamentary estimate."
The magnitude of the works, which were unprecedented in England, was
one of the most remarkable features in the undertaking. The following
striking comparison has been made between this railway and one of
the greatest works of ancient times. The great Pyramid of Egypt
was, according to Diodorus Siculus, constructed by three hundred
thousand--according to Herodotus, by one hundred thousand--men. It
required for its execution twenty years, and the labor expended upon
it has been estimated as equivalent to lifting 15,733,000,000 of
cubic feet of stone one foot high; whereas, if the labor expended
in constructing the London and Birmingham Railway be in like manner
reduced to one common denomination, the result is 25,000,000,000 of
cubic feet _more_ than was lifted for the Great Pyramid; and yet the
English work was performed by about 20,000 men in less than five
years. And while the Egyptian work was executed by a powerful monarch
concentrating upon it the labor and capital of a great nation, the
English railway was constructed, in the face of every conceivable
obstruction and difficulty, by a company of private individuals out of
their own resources, without the aid of government or the contribution
of one farthing of public money.
The laborers who executed these formidable works were in many respects
a remarkable class. The "railway navvies,"[77] as they were called,
were men drawn by the attraction of good wages from all parts of the
kingdom; and they were ready for any sort of hard work. Many of the
laborers employed on the Liverpool line were Irish; others were from
the Northumberland and Durham railways, where they had been accustomed
to similar work; and some of the best came from the fen districts of
Lincoln and Cambridge, where they had been trained to execute works of
excavation and embankment. These old practitioners formed a nucleus of
skilled manipulation and aptitude which rendered them of indispensable
utility in the immense undertakings of the period. Their expertness in
all sorts of earth-work, in embanking, boring, and well-sinking--their
practical knowledge of the nature of soils and rocks, the tenacity of
clays, and the porosity of certain stratifications--were very great;
and, rough-looking as they were, many of them were as important in
their own department as the contractor or the engineer.
During the railway-making period the navvy wandered about from one
public work to another, apparently belonging to no country and having
no home. He usually wore a white felt hat with the brim turned up, a
velveteen or jean square-tailed coat, a scarlet plush waistcoat with
little black spots, and a bright-colored kerchief round his Herculean
neck, when, as often happened, it was not left entirely bare. His
corduroy breeches were retained in position by a leathern strap round
the waist, and were tied and buttoned at the knee, displaying beneath
a solid calf and foot incased in strong high-laced boots. Joining
together in a "butty gang," some ten or twelve of these men would take
a contract to cut out and remove so much "dirt"--as they denominated
earth-cutting--fixing their price according to the character of the
"stuff," and the distance to which it had to be wheeled and tipped. The
contract taken, every man put himself to his mettle; if any was found
skulking, or not putting forth his full working power, he was ejected
from the gang. Their powers of endurance were extraordinary. In times
of emergency they would work for twelve and even sixteen hours, with
only short intervals for meals. The quantity of flesh-meat which they
consumed was something enormous; but it was to their bones and muscles
what coke is to the locomotive--the means of keeping up the steam. They
displayed great pluck, and seemed to disregard peril. Indeed, the most
dangerous sort of labor--such as working horse-barrow runs, in which
accidents are of constant occurrence--has always been most in request
among them, the danger seeming to be one of its chief recommendations.
[Illustration: KILSBY TUNNEL. [North End.]]
Working together, eating, drinking, and sleeping together, and daily
exposed to the same influences, these railway laborers soon presented
a distinct and well-defined character, strongly marking them from the
population of the districts in which they labored. Reckless alike of
their lives as of their earnings, the navvies worked hard and lived
hard. For their lodging, a hut of turf would content them; and, in
their hours of leisure, the meanest public house would serve for their
parlor. Unburdened, as they usually were, by domestic ties, unsoftened
by family affection, and without much moral or religious training,
the navvies came to be distinguished by a sort of savage manners,
which contrasted strangely with those of the surrounding population.
Yet, ignorant and violent though they might be, they were usually
good-hearted fellows in the main--frank and open-handed with their
comrades, and ready to share their last penny with those in distress.
Their pay-nights were often a saturnalia of riot and disorder, dreaded
by the inhabitants of the villages along the line of works. The
irruption of such men into the quiet hamlet of Kilsby must, indeed,
have produced a very startling effect on the recluse inhabitants of the
place. Robert Stephenson used to tell a story of the clergyman of the
parish waiting upon the foreman of one of the gangs to expostulate with
him as to the shocking impropriety of his men working during Sunday.
But the head navvy merely hitched up his trowsers and said, "Why,
Soondays hain't cropt out here yet!" In short, the navvies were little
better than heathens, and the village of Kilsby was not restored to its
wonted quiet until the tunnel-works were finished, and the engines and
scaffolding removed, leaving only the immense masses of _débris_ around
the line of shafts which extend along the top of the tunnel.
FOOTNOTE:
[77] The word "navvie," or "navigator," is supposed to have originated
in the fact of many of these laborers having been originally employed
in making the navigations, or canals, the construction of which
immediately preceded the railway era.