2-490-413 - The London Archives (City of London)/Heritage Images

Entrance to the Thames Tunnel at Wapping, London, 1836. 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, and is still used by the London Underground today. Sir Marc Isambard Brunel designed the tunnel, and his son, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was site engineer.