Note 129 — Chapter XII

“While upon tunnels, the construction of that upon the West End and Crystal Palace Railway may be referred to, in consequence of the anxiety that was felt on account of its passing very close to the south-west angle of the Crystal Palace, between that point and the Water Tower, the foundations of which were being laid just as the tunnelling was proceeding at that spot. It will be remembered that the present Water Tower replaced one of which the foundation was deemed insufficient. Considering the enormous weight and height of the Water Tower, with its huge tank at the top, capable of containing several hundred tons of water, it became necessary to take every precaution, the matter being of great importance both as regards the safety of the tunnel, with its huge superincumbent weight, and the Water Tower, which, from its great height, and also from being placed at some little distance laterally from the tunnel, might easily have been thrown out of the perpendicular, had any settlement taken place after its erection.