How the world's first metro system was built - Christian Wolmar

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It was the dawn of 1863, and London's not-yet-opened subway system - the first of its kind in the world - had the city in an uproar. Most people thought the project, which cost more than 100 million dollars in today's money, would never work. So how did they do it? Christian Wolmar explains how the London Underground was built at a time when no one had built a railway under a city before.
Lesson by Christian Wolmar, animation by TED-Ed.
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[@TEDEd]

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[@rasisdegreat7747]

I'm 23, it's a bit late but can I join? I have dreams too

[@finderinskaie]

TED-Ed I have a question for the clubs.. I checked the site and I only saw options to start one.. and I kinda just want to join one instead of making one... Would that be possible?.. As I would love to be a part of a TedEd club..

[@fqidz]

i like turltles

[@markdarenvillanueva7740]

video about Opera please. Especially about Maria Callas.

[@hobbyslaktaren]

Sorry Ted but the first Subway was built in New York but closed, then the subway in London was built. London is therefore the oldest now operational but not the first, not what started it.

[@Bastogne1944]

Also the London Underground map was arguably a revolutionary design in of itself. Great upload TED Ed.

[@creativityjune3591]

Why was it revolutionary?

[@MRRookie232]

TheRenaissanceman65 your comment deserves more upvotes

[@jgallardo7344]

Well ahead of its time. Even by comparison of the US

[@donnie8032]

@@postvideo97 doesnt it make sense that if they were the first railway, their map design and everything else they did would be copied by everyone else?

[@DancingLedge]

@@donnie8032 not if it didn’t work as an info graphic Would have been superseded by designs that worked better The fact that it’s still used to this day as the blueprint shows how well the original designer did his job

[@TEDEd]

For everyone who got two notifications about this lesson, sorry about that! We had a glitch in the original video and had to remove it and re-upload. Thanks for sticking with us, we hope you enjoy the lesson!

[@aman___004]

TED-Ed was thinking abt the same. Anyways, thanks for this informative video :")

[@MrMineHeads.]

I love your channel!

[@azmeriliza3788]

TED-Ed Nice video! ❤Ted-Ed

[@tygarner9142]

Hi TED! Long time subscriber! Just had a question: If you could, can you make a video about how the bridges on the interstate, or over large bodies of water, are built? Thanks for all of the awesome lessons!

[@dooitzeyidejong]

Problem with the map is the lack of a dot on the City of Cape Town.

[@mrrolandlawrence]

0:58 and that is why many countries call their underground trains "metro" - named after the 1st underground train the metropolitan line.. useless fact: i used to take that train from moor park to baker street every day for work :P

[@MacIn173]

Yep, in russian language, for example, "metropoliten" means subway.

[@hansmuller3924]

In Germany it's called "U-Bahn", for "Undergroun train"

[@hankjones7054]

To any tourists getting off at Baker Street (when travel is actually allowed again 🙄) do not go to the sherlock Holmes museum. It's a complete waste of money lol.

[@theemirofjaffa2266]

@@hankjones7054 😅🤣😂 why are you saying that? Lol

[@davidlittle7182]

'Underground' is also the specific name only for London's subway

[@Andrewjg_89]

London does love its own transport. Including the London Underground, London Overground, Emirates Air-Line cable car, Docklands Light Railway, Tramlink, Buses, Taxis, Santander bike hire, TfL Rail, National Rail (including Thameslink) and of course the Elizabeth Line which is to open next year.

[@choppership465]

tfl rail and elizabeth line is basically the same thing

[@danienordin1488]

The weird part is that even in 2018, I'm still amazed with this innovation that dued in the 19th century!

[@ChanwooPark-me1wc]

세계 최초의 지하철도에 대해서 굉장히 유익한 내용이었습니다. 처음 지하철도를 만들 때 땅을 파서 터널을 만들고 다시 땅을 덮는 방법을 사용한 줄 몰랐는데, 그 뒤로 지하에 바로 구멍을 뚫을 수 있는 기계가 발명돼서 지하철이 지금처럼 널리 퍼지게 된 것 같습니다. 항상 유익한 동영상 감사합니다.

[@gracelord6476]

Put it this way: London had a working metro system at the same time that slavery was legal in parts of America.

[@user-hb4zz4gh5e]

Oof

[@edoardo69yearsago88]

Oof

[@전브렌트]

yes the same time the uk was was exploiting and looting off of its colonies

[@gamereaper3144]

@@전브렌트 Not much "Looting" to be honest. All the Colonies would not be Rich as said without the help of the British.

[@dylan_Coat]

Two very different "underground railroads" at the time

[@trevordance5181]

The first deep level underground railway stations in the world opened to the public in 1886 were Liverpool James Street, and Birkenhead Hamilton Square, in the UK. These stations are still in use today and together with other underground stations in central Liverpool form part of the Mersey Rail network.

[@jakehorsburgh2878]

I just moved to near London and the underground constantly blows my mind

[@oludotunjohnshowemimo434]

Now a part of the Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan and Circle lines. The Hammersmith and City and Circle line platforms at Baker Street. Before 1990, the Hammersmith and City line was running, but not as a separate line as it does today. It was still part of the Metropolitan line between Hammersmith and Barking.

[@sirjoey3137]

There are actually surprisingly few videos about the history of metros, this is the best and one of the only ones I could find. If anybody could find like a documentary about it I'd be happy if you could link it since I can't for the life of me find one myself.

[@jeffreywilliams13]

If you use the Metropolitan Line, at Bakers Street you can still see the ventilation tube, noting that the first underground train was a steam powered. Isambard Kingdom Brunel actually developed the technique to tunnel under a river that was later used by the Underground. PS We do not have a Subway or Metro here it is the Underground or Tube, thanks.

[@TheScienceBiome]

The narrator has the smoothest voice!

[@TommoCarroll]

It's like candy floss!

[@spiralpython1989]

Your world map of underground railway systems did not include any Australian systems. Melbourne’s City Loop May not be as extensive as the London Underground or the New York Subway, but it’s there and extremely busy!

[@justgrand3429]

One of England's greatest achievements.

[@clvsidy]

Wh’s watching during quarantine ?

[@BodaphonePT]

The map with the lines today is all but correct. Lots of lines not included, as per example, my city, Oporto

[@rafa-rt5nz]

You can see with the central line the cut and cover technique. All of their oldest stations are under main roads rather than to their sides

[@ryuhayashi97]

Such a soothing voice. I wonder if Lemmino can voice one of these amazing short documentary here hehe

[@arghyapaul4638]

From cut and cover technique to TBMs, we certainly have come a long way!!!

[@luonghaanh9233]

Hello TED-Ed, thank you so much for the precious knowledge that you provided our subscribers. But can you attach the transcript in the description box, please? It's really difficult for me sometimes to understand the video properly because of some new vocabulary

[@lenardregencia]

Ted and Ed is my favorite Team-up.

[@Inkyminkyzizwoz]

I visited the London Transport Museum earlier this week and there's a lot about this in there

[@bachtruongjdmdiecast6821]

I love this lesson its so cool that i share your channel to almost all of my friends know, they all like it

[@charlesamazon2663]

As always, another great video by TED-Ed.

[@lirasphere]

Philippines needs this

[@robertfletcher3421]

Wether is was railways, roads or canals the Victorian engineers got on and built it. These days things are so slow they often don't get finished.

[@TomPVideo]

4:00 ahh yes, the great subway systems of Churchill Manitoba and Kuujjuarapik Quebec.

[@Cooper-eg3bv]

I guess I never thought of the first subway but goddamn 1840’s!?!?

[@marcelweber7813]

Only 160 cities with a subway in the world? That one surprised me a lot.

[@antonioperito6607]

Thanks Charles Pearson

[@thebomb78]

Some of us in South London are still waiting for the tube to reach us!

[@elijahmckenzie9207]

They’re planning on making the Bakerloo line extend into south London, by 2023 it’s expected to go to Lewisham and from there apparently may branch off towards catford, blackheath etc which would be nice to see.

[@avcomth]

Also to put this into more mindblowing perspective, around this time the transatlantic telegraph cable was just completed and allowed Europe and continental America to send news back and forth within minutes, all while Americans were fighting civil war to end slavery and people in Asia still using pigeons to communicate, fought with swords and spears, and living in bamboo houses.

[@turkishissunlanguage]

*eastern asians

[@towwong2822]

The line names are also interesting. Only London has a metro-line with the name Jubilee or Bakerloo

[@patrickovsiu]

The Tower Bridge didn't exist when the Metropolitan opened, and when the C&SLR opened it's merely under construction.

[@lamiamj144]

Wow, train's & sub way train are great but how much do we know of this under-ground are the inspected or monitored

[@tomburns5231]

You've missed quite a few cities with metros/subways on your map @3:59, e.g. Melbourne, Australia.

[@gooo1762]

Super informative video. Thanks!

[@tomlee2651]

3:56 You missed Taipei and Kaohsiung in Taiwan.

[@theasianboy315]

I have a question : Why most rapid transit systems in Europe named "metro", such Paris Metro, Moscow Metro, Kiev Metro, Metro de Madrid, Prague Metro or Budapest Metro?

[@turkishissunlanguage]

The second oldest subway system after the 'London Underground' is called the 'İstanbul Tünel' which had opened in 1874, so not all of the oldest ones have 'Metro' in their names

[@TheGamingSyndrom]

The only thing i dont understand is how they dealed with the steam by the steamengine underground

[@davidandremelchorzavala2100]

The_Gaming_Syndrom Holes

[@SimonS44]

Why are you calling it subway and not metro? I mean the word metro developed from the Metropolitan Railway (although it's not used in London) and also metro is the standard term for these kinds of rapid transit systems

[@salmon1mt]

SimonHellinger Americans

[@MarioFanGamer659]

Doesn't Britons use "underground" instead of "metro".

[@SimonS44]

MarioFanGamer well Underground is only the one in London, Glasgow has the subway and Newcastle has the Tyne-and-Wear Metro but (as a non-native) I think metro is accepted as a general term

[@amybechan2213]

We either call it the tube or the underground, but mostly the tube, as that's it's official name. We call it that from the shape of the tunnels, like said in the video

[@salmon1mt]

MarioFanGamer we say the tube

[@eddjames6900]

The phrase "pub drinkers" rustles my jimmies, it's so slightly wrong

[@Mi_Fa_Volare]

I remember the line of a GTA IV pedestrian: "I should have taken the subway. I knew it!

[@Quetzalcoatl0]

How did they handled the smoke and vapor ?

[@kathrose2299]

i wish we have this in the Philippines

[@christopherdonaghue2461]

What is going on with that map at 4:01? I don't think there's a metro in northern Quebec, especially not where they say, which is a village of fewer than 500 people.

[@Sara-tp6zd]

I love this channel. It makes worthy using youtube

[@rosenbergfamily8197]

There are under ground in Sydney

[@AtTheBellEnd]

Are you sure about all the dots on that map at the end?

[@simplynumbi]

You forgot to mark Johannesburg on the map, it's a hybrid line but still one of the only ones in Africa , worth mentioning. ;)

[@chluff]

ugh, please don't refer to the tube as a "subway system"

[@MarioFanGamer659]

@no no: Calling the London Tube a "subway" is about as wrong as calling a lift an "elevator" - it's a matter on whether the person is American (like the narrator) or British. Of course, no Londoner calls the Tube a "subway" because London is British and they use "underground" instead of "subway" but this video was made with the American vocabulary instead of the British one.

[@chluff]

MarioFanGamer I wasn't saying it's the wrong term because it's an americanism, it's wrong because the tube isn't a subway system. new york city has a subway, london has the underground

[@chluff]

MarioFanGamer like, of course londoners wouldn't USE the word subway in the same way we wouldn't use "sidewalk", but if someone referred to a pavement as a sidewalk I wouldn't say they're wrong, they're just using a different word - but the tube is not a subway

[@adikumar6536]

no no Please elaborate

[@chluff]

StayFrosty I don't know what more I can say. lead is not gold and the underground is not a subway system

[@deikos3912]

Awsome Video. Love Ted-Ed. Could you please talk about how Mexico City became the largest city in the world?

[@deikos3912]

Bob Lawblawblaw By territory

[@karldelavigne8134]

It was, and is, never called a subway but an underground railway.

[@stevenwoods8317]

Liverpool had a deep level underground (tube) in 1886

[@lukeskywalker6338]

The London underground is getting new trains next year

[@HAMID___]

Meanwhile here in nyc the subways are decaying, more delays as the fare prices are raised every year. Heck it takes years to fix a pothole

[@mrwusss9126]

At WW2, on the 14th October 1940, the London Balham Underground station was hit by a 3,000lb armored piercing bomb.

[@VinayakaHalemane]

I am curious about one thing though. Didn't trains run on coal back when the first underground railway systems were built? If so, what happened to the smoke that was created by the trains? How did it not create a smoke chamber throughout the tunnels?

[@thameslinkrail4038]

Every so often there was a gap in the roof to allow ventilation, as a result they had to knock down a few houses, therefore 23 and 24 Leinster Gardens are dummy houses with painted windows and doors so that trains could release smoke where the houses once were.

[@EliteXtasy]

A subway in the UK is a type of underpass.

[@CadetGriffin]

Nominal values are for when you want to know the actual cost. Adjusted for inflation is when you just want to know how expensive it felt back then.

[@all4honor]

Nice, thank you

[@mjstory1976]

Very informative and interesting video

[@joninuusi9179]

I think you got Finnland's metro location wrong.

[@Stricken-Zero]

Great work as always! I watch these videos just for fun and some knowledge >:D

[@bennettfoley3018]

chicaago?!?!?? i'm sorry but the red/blue lines at least totally count it as a subway.

[@shankysays]

What about the steam and smoke that came from smoke engine used that time. How did they tackle that?

[@karnamsudeep]

Love your knowledgeable videos

[@fredflintstoner596]

Mrs Richards "I paid for a room with a view !" Basil: (pointing to the lovely view) "That is Torquay, Madam." Mrs Richards: "It's not good enough!" Basil: "May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically past?..." Mrs Richards: "Don't be silly! I expect to be able to see the sea!" Basil: "You can see the sea, it's over there between the land and the sky." Mrs Richards: "I'm not satisfied. But I shall stay. But I expect a reduction." Basil: "Why?! Because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment?

[@underwrldimp7371]

Washington D.C. has metro tunnels, they forgot to dot it on the map @ 4:01

[@Mann_mit_Kaffee]

3:53 very odd location for budapest, berlin and paris... Budapest is in prague and berlin is in clogne?

[@Lauren-dz9fq]

3:38 I can be picky and say that king william street appears to not have closed And he says railROAD the first time, which is wrong in britain

Love you

[@Chooseyourownhandle]

I learned about this in my class

[@lukee-af5931]

Did no one notice the misplacement of Budapest and Berlin on the map?

[@cloverisfan818]

1. Confirm that you have green eyes 2. Tell the tube train to leave

[@snowboarder7772]

Where is Kauperwood?

[@bripi244]

Wait wait, did you just dotted Sumatra??? Dream on Ted-Ed we don't have underground railways there

[@bripi244]

Zaydan Naufal we don't have subsays in jakarta too

[@philippmaqs8799]

Feels bad when your country doesn't have one

[@CK-yb5pi]

That Budapest dot was way off lmao

[@orien2v2]

_On the right track_ I see what you did there... Okay fine Imma' head out!

[@svetazsg]

Enchanted

[@wamble_]

This is probably the best to further economic development. Does anyone agree with that?

[@WesternOhioInterurbanHistory]

Sadly some of the tunnels are disused.

[@bulbs_]

The London Underground map is technically a head ache now.

[@losh330]

You forgot Baltimore, Chicago, San Juan, and Cleveland on your map.

[@Jerbear1022]

At 3:58 they talk about underground railroads world wide. 3 are in North eastern Canada and yet I cannot for the life of me find a city large enough for that. Does anyone know what cities those are?

[@tashadhyani]

there's one in Sumatra, Indonesia??

[@jamesthemaniac3293]

Um excuse me...Boston had a subway before New York City!

[@kaiserredgamer8943]

Subways don't always work due to things such as floods. *Laughs in overhead railways*

[@bn56would]

You mean overground? Overhead railways wouldn't make sense because that means the train would be going under the rail...

[@akbrahma7739]

1863 London had commuters, street vendors and cows. Wonder how London dealt with that problem. Multiple lines of tube transport a 140 years ago. London was the truly the Rome of 19th century.

[@aarons.6708]

Ankur Brahma Interestingly, London started out as an ancient Roman outpost for when the Romans occupied Britannia. It was originally called Londonium.

[@PastPresented]

Lots and lots of people made a living cleaning the streets ...

[@debodatta7398]

In France we always learned the first subway was in Paris but I believe that may be because we stretch the definition to include tramways.

[@PastPresented]

What Paris had first (or rather second, after Nantes) was urban buses, not trams or underground railways.

[@JassonQuill]

british inventions vs american inventions how many?

[@alexanderpbyron]

For anyone wondering, the Metropolitan Railway is now the Metropolitan Line on today’s London tube map, and the station they animated is now part of the Circle Line, at Baker Street

[@Yousam200]

So that’s the station Sherlock Holmes used back in the day. Interesting

[@OrdinaryPotato]

Man I love education videos

[@azmeriliza3788]

Ordinary Potato ""educational"" videos

[@sagarkamble4383]

I just love ted-ed they explain very easily....❤

[@irate_desperado8597]

not to even mention the animations! their animation team must be amazingly hard working

[@jhjhggfffcuvgfhhvgv1848]

And straight to the point!!

[@spatzvomalexanderplatz3200]

Pretty cool! But let me say, the Londoner`s call their subway "underground"... The word subway is more american style, not british

[@davidandremelchorzavala2100]

Garnele 81 Underrated comment!!!

[@chenyeanmingtakumi9033]

Londoners also call Underground as "the Tube" for deep level lines constructed by tunnel drilling machine

[@theromanshogunate5716]

We also call it the tube

[@_Rhort]

When someone says "Subway", I think "Really rubbish sandwich shop".

[@LeotheJapaneseLion9890]

@@_Rhort So true. It's rubbish

Just saying: Budapest is way out of place on that map.

[@Alphathon]

Yeah, looks like it's around Zwickau or Karlovy Vary and certainly isn't in Hungary. "Berlin" isn't much better as it looks to be somewhere near Bonn (although at least it's in the right country). What's the point in using a map if you're not even going to get it roughly right?

[@Jerbear1022]

They also place 3 cities around the Hudson Bay that supposedly have Subway systems? I don't know what city they mean.

[@jgallardo7344]

So was NYC

[@christopherjohnson6993]

Also Chicago wasn’t even on the map.

[@quinnnewberry9977]

Not to mention that in Canada, the subway is in the most northern part of Quebec where less than a few thousand live.

[@TommoCarroll]

Have lived in London for our entire lives and did not know that about the metropolitan line! It's weird to consider that gridlock could still occur back then simply with carts and the like! Great video as always Ted-Ed!

[@kyles.7750]

I subbed for the cheesy puns at the end :)

[@BlueEyes-WhiteDrag0n]

+Arbaaz Patwari U don't get it, do u ? he meant to say "He *Subbed* ..........."

[@ivanmabayag]

"Started at the right track" the puns at the end of the vids always make me smile.

[@aldhieu.a.teodocio8796]

When your country has no subway trains. Sad. Edit: We will have now haha. The construction will end in 2025. Edit: We also have trains (I think we have 5 or 6 lines if I'm not mistaken) but when we say subway, we tend to refer it as an underground train system. Right now the construction is ongoing and expected to end in 2025.

[@QuarioQuario54321]

Where do you live?

[@debodatta7398]

In France we always learned the first subway was in Paris but I believe that may be because we stretch the definition to include tramways.

[@mihinkarunaratne]

Africa

[@MJYoutubers]

Debo Datta that place has a subway🤨, i had no idea, i thought it had to many canals

[@carnotv6136]

Jaraiya Builds ...no