Interior of the Thames Tunnel

This print shows the interior of the Thames Tunnel in Rotherhithe which was the first underwater tunnel in the world. It was built under the Thames and connected Rotherhithe and Wapping. It measures 35 feet (11 m) wide by 20 feet (6 m) high and is 1,300 feet (396 m) long, running at a depth of 75 feet (23 m) below the river's surface (measured at high tide).

It was the first tunnel known successfully to have been constructed underneath a navigable river, and was built between 1825 and 1843 using Thomas Cochrane and Marc Isambard Brunel's newly invented tunnelling shield technology. It was constructed by Brunel and his son Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

The tunnel was purchased in September 1865 by the East London Railway Company, a consortium of six mainline railways which sought to use the tunnel to provide a rail link for goods and passengers between Wapping (and later Liverpool Street) and the South London Line.