Why a 1908 Tunnel Still Runs Beneath the Thames

Beneath the Thames between Rotherhithe and Limehouse runs a road tunnel opened in 1908, built for horses and dock workers, designed by the same Irish engineer who helped construct the Blackwall Tunnel. It displaced three thousand residents, killed zero construction workers, and was declared the largest underwater tunnel in the world. The docks it was built to serve closed in 1970. The tunnel kept running. Today it carries forty thousand vehicles a day through lanes barely wide enough for a modern car, ventilated by a system designed for horse manure, not diesel exhaust. This is the story of why it was built, what it cost, and why it refuses to die.