Sunday 19 February 2012

Tunnels under the Thames-Blackwall Tunnels 1897

No4 1897 Blackwall Tunnels, used as a road tunnel








The Blackwall Tunnel is a pair of road tunnels underneath the River Thames in east London, linking the London Borough of Tower Hamlets with the Royal Borough of Greenwich, and part of the A102 road. The northern portal lies just south of the East India Dock Road (A13) in Blackwall; the southern entrances are just south of The O2 (formerly the Millennium Dome) on the Greenwich Peninsula. Before the opening of the Dartford Tunnel in 1963, the Blackwall Tunnel was the easternmost Thames crossing for vehicles, excluding ferries.
The northern approach takes traffic from the A12 and the southern approach takes traffic from the A2, making the tunnel crossing a key link for both local and longer-distance traffic between the north and south sides of the river. It forms part of a key route into Central London from South East London and Kent.
The tunnels are not open to pedestrians, cyclists or other non-motorised traffic. One bus route, the Transport for London (TfL) 108 (Stratford-Lewisham) route, runs through the tunnels.

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