View of the shield used in the construction of the Thames Tunnel, London Robert Walpole pedestrians walking through the Thames

pedestrians walking through the Thames Tunnel

showing five figures playing with a blindfolded young man

View of an old jettied building in Great St Helens

A man tends to the draught horse

View of the shield used in the construction of the Thames Tunnel, London Robert Walpole pedestrians walking through the ThamesView of the shield used in the construction of the Thames Tunnel, London, 1835. The Thames Tunnel, connecting Wapping and Rotherhithe, was the first underwater tunnel in the world. Completed as a foot tunnel in 1843, it was converted to a railway tunnel for the East London Railway in the 1860s. Sir Marc Isambard Brunel designed the tunnel, and his son, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was site engineer.