Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/598

592 LONDON river at Chelsea hospital. It includes the district of the Savoy and the lordship of the duchy of Lancaster, which are situated be- tween the Strand and the river. Tower Hamlets adjoins the city of London and Fins- bury on the west ; Finsbury adjoins West- minster and Marylebone on the west, and the west part of the city of London on the south. Marylebone is chiefly in the Kegent's park dis- trict in the West End ; Southwark and Lam- beth are on the Surrey side ; Greenwich com- prises Deptford, Woolwich, and other places ; Hackney, a N. district forming part of Tower Hamlets, and Chelsea, in the West End, became separate boroughs in 1867. The Thames runs through the centre of the city, and is spanned by many bridges. Most frequented is Lon- don bridge, over 900 ft. long, with a daily traf- fic of 25,000 vehicles and countless multitudes constantly passing between the city and the other side of the river ; tunnels have been built and are in course of construction tinder the bridge to relieve the pressure. West- minster bridge, 1,200 ft. long, finished in 1862, is double the width of the old bridge, and consists of seven iron arches resting on stone piers with foundations descending 30 ft. be- low low water. Blackfriars bridge was re- placed in 1869 by a new one nearly 1,300 ft. long, with five iron arches ; it was opened in 1870 at the same time with the N. Thames embankment. Close to Blackfriars is the Al- exandra lattice bridge of the London, Chat- ham, and Dover railway, carrying four lines of rails to Ludgate hill station. Southwark bridge, 700 ft. long, with three iron arches, dates from 1819 ; the penny toll was abolished in 1865, and it became city property in 1868. Waterloo bridge, one of the finest in the world, is 1,240 ft. long, with nine elliptical arches ; it was opened on the second anniversary of the battle of Waterloo in 1817. The halfpenny toll is annually paid by about 3,000,000 per- sons. Vauxhall bridge, dating from 1816, is 800 ft. long, with nine arches, and extends from Vauxhall to Millbank. Albert bridge, 800 ft., the longest and most substantial of the suspension bridges, extends from the Chel- sea embankment to Battersea park, and was opened Aug. 23, 1873. An iron bridge was opened in 1874 from Wandsworth to Ful- ham, midway between Battersea and Putney bridges. The Charing Cross or Hungerford (dating from 1863) replaced Hungerford sus- pension bridge, and there are various other bridges. The greatest recent improvements are the river quays or Thames embankments. The northern or Victoria embankment, 100 ft. wide, and costing nearly 2,000,000, was opened in 1870 ; it forms a matchless pub- lic way between Westminster and Blackfriars bridges, following the easy curve of the river, with the houses of parliament at one end and St. Paul's at the other, Waterloo bridge and Somerset house midway, and all along in sight of the Thames with its ever-crowded shipping. The southern or Albert embankment, comple- ted about the same period at a cost of 1,100,- 000, runs from Westminster bridge nearly to Vauxhall bridge, with the new St. Thomas's hospital, a long range of buildings, facing the houses of parliament and extending from the foot of Westminster bridge to Lambeth pal- ace ; but this embankment, though superior to the northern one in the edifices bordering it on the land side, has the disadvantage of ter- minating somewhat abruptly among the pot- teries, gas and chemical works, and other un- savory establishments of Lambeth. The Chel- sea embankment, opened May 9, 1874, begins at Chelsea hospital gardens, where it joins the embankment constructed some years ago to the old Battersea bridge, presenting along that space a massive granite wall to the river, and on the land side an unbroken roadway 70 ft. wide. For a considerable distance it is flanked by pleasure grounds ; and though much less costly and less ornamented than the north- ern and southern embankments, it is almost equally grand. New groups of streets, build- ings, and shops cluster round the new embank- ments and their various continuations, while many others are in course of construction. The most northerly of the longitudinal lines of street parallel to the river enters the metropo- lis on the west by the Bayswater road, and trav- erses Oxford street, Holborn, and Newgate street, till it reaches Cheapside ; it next passes through the Poultry, having the bank of Eng- land and the royal exchange on the one hand, and the mansion house on the other, along Cornhill to Leadenhall street, and is thence con- tinued by Whitechapel and the Mile End road, which leads to Essex and the eastern counties. The other great longitudinal line begins on the west at Hyde Park corner, passing Kensington gardens, part of Hyde park, and the Green park. On the E. end of Piccadilly the continuous line of street diverges to the right through the Hay- market, whence it proceeds to the east along E. Pall Mall, through Trafalgar square, past St. Martin's church, till it reaches the Strand. The great line is thence continued through Fleet street and Ludgate hill, till it arrives at St. Paul's cathedral. At the N. E. end of St. Paul's churchyard it joins the great northern street line which runs from the Bayswater road ; but another branch of the former line runs nearer the river through Watling street, Eastcheap, and Tower street to Tower hill, whence it may be followed either in a straight line through Kadcliffe highway, N. of the London docks, or close by the river along Wapping and Shad- well, where the lines unite in a single street, leading to the West India docks. Another line of street which unites with that last de- scribed begins at Vauxhall bridge, and runs through Abingdon street until it has West- minster abbey on the left and the houses of parliament and Westminster hall on the right. Leaving these, with Westminster bridge on the right, it joins Parliament street and Whitehall,