On 12 January 1828, workers are busy excavating a tunnel under the River Thames. Suddenly the ceiling collapses, bringing to a halt all the laborious work of constructing this 396-metre-long tunnel to link North London with South London
Timber from the temporary tunnel wall comes loose and traps the leg of a young civil engineer who is assisting his father, Marc Isambard Brunel, the project’s chief engineer. The tunnel around 21-year-old Isambard is now in pitch darkness, with water from the river pouring in, and some 100 men fighting a chaotic battle to survive. The young Brunel barely manages to free his leg and escape the water; he reaches the surface despite his fractured leg and severe internal injuries. Not everybody is so lucky. The accident kills a total of six workers.
That tunnel under the River Thames opened in 1843, and is considered one of the engineering wonders of the 1800s. The project was the first in the world to excavate under the water, and in spite of numerous flooding incidents, the passage under the
