London Underground
The first subway: London Underground.
Today it seems normal to go down a few stairs and board an underground train to cross a city. But there was a time when the subway did not exist. Someone had to imagine it for the first time. And that place was London.
In 1863, the world’s first underground railway opened. That invention changed the way people moved around cities forever and made London the world champion of an idea that would eventually be copied in almost every corner of the planet.
A city trapped by traffic
During the 19th century, London was the largest city in the world. Its streets were packed with horse-drawn carriages, carts loaded with goods, and thousands of people walking from one side to the other.
Traffic was so heavy that traveling just a few kilometers could take hours. In addition, horses left enormous amounts of manure in the streets, causing bad smells and hygiene problems. The city needed an urgent solution.
Then an idea emerged that seemed completely impossible: if there was no more room for vehicles on the surface, why not build a railway beneath the city?
Digging beneath London
Building tunnels in that era was far from easy. There were no giant drilling machines like today, so thousands of workers dug through the earth with shovels, pickaxes, and a lot of patience.
First they opened a huge trench from the surface. Then they built the tunnel with bricks and, finally, covered it back over with earth to rebuild the street above. That is how the first line of the London Underground was born.
For many residents, it was an incredible feat. Never before had a rail network been built under such a large city.
Steam trains underground!
The first trains ran on steam locomotives. That meant they carried a large boiler that burned coal to produce the energy needed.
The problem was easy to imagine: those trains filled the tunnels with smoke. The stations were covered in steam, and the air could be very unpleasant for travelers.
Even so, the invention was a success. People preferred to put up with a little smoke rather than spend hours trapped among the carriages on the surface.
Electricity changed everything
At the end of the 19th century, a new technology appeared that revolutionized the subway: electricity.
The new electric trains were much faster, quieter, and cleaner. They no longer produced smoke, which made it possible to build ever deeper lines and transport millions of passengers comfortably and safely.
Thanks to this improvement, the subway stopped being a curiosity and became an essential part of daily life in London.
An Idea That Went Around the World
The success of the London Underground attracted the attention of other major cities. Little by little, underground networks began to be built in Budapest, Paris, New York, Berlin, Madrid, Moscow, Tokyo, and hundreds of other cities.
Today, there are metro systems on every inhabited continent, and billions of people use them every year. Although each city has its own design, they all share the same idea that was born beneath the streets of London more than 160 years ago.
A World Champion
The London Underground belongs to the World Champion category because it was the first metro system on the planet. Its construction solved a huge traffic problem and paved the way for major cities to grow without being paralyzed.
Every time we go down to a metro station, whether in London, Madrid, Mexico City, or Tokyo, we are using an idea that began beneath the streets of the British capital. Few innovations have changed the way people travel the world so much.
