Tunnelling shield
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A tunnelling shield is a protective structure used during the excavation of large, human-made tunnels. When excavating through ground that is soft, liquid, or otherwise unstable, there is a potential
The tunnelling shield used for the construction of the Xinyi Line on the Taipei Metro system in Taiwan.
The Greathead tunnelling shield in use on the Waterloo & City Railway
Tunnel boring machine case left in the completed tunnel and used as part of the support structure at Setagaya-Daita Station on the Odakyu Odawara Line
Tunnel boring machine to excavate a Double-O-Tube
Thames Tunnel
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The Thames Tunnel is a tunnel beneath the River Thames in London, connecting Rotherhithe and Wapping. It measures 35 ft wide by 20 ft high and is 1,300 ft long, running at a depth of 75 ft below the r
Tunnelling shield
…developed by Marc Isambard Brunel and patented with Lord Cochrane in January 1818. Brunel and his son Isambard Kingdom Brunel used it to excavate the Thames Tunnel beginning in 1825 (though the tunnel was not opened until 1843). Brunel is said to have been inspired in his design by the shell of the shipworm, a…
Inside the Thames Tunnel in the mid-19th century
A scale model of the tunnelling shield at the Brunel Museum at Rotherhithe
The Thames Tunnel excavation as it was, probably around 1840
An 1870 view of a train exiting the Thames Tunnel at Wapping