TedEd: How the world's first metro system was built

A TedEd by Christian Wolmar

In 1863, many people were losing faith in the London Underground project, which aimed to establish an underground railway to ease above ground traffic congestion in London, the then-biggest city in the world. The project cost 100 million dollars in today's money, and many believed it wouldn't work. But on January 10th, as the first ever subway in the world opened, thousands traveled underground to ride on it. The Metropolitan Railway first traveled across a 4 mile stretch and quickly expanded. Charles Pearson was the first to come up with the idea in the 1840's but was met with lots of resistance because people thought it was impractical. Of course, there was the problem of digging an underground tunnel inside a city. To solve this problem, workers dug into existing roads, then made a tunnel from brick archways, then covered it back up. However, this was very destructive, and sometimes, work was stalled due to flooding. Suburbs and stores soon began growing around stations. Soon, as the original method of tunneling began taking too long, a device called the Greathead Shield greatly reduced the amount of work and time needed to dig. The lines dug with this machine were called tubes, and were much deeper than the old lines, so they could go anywhere. Today, cities around the world have subway lines, all thanks to the ingenuity of Charles Pearson.