Super Structures of the World: The London Underground Tunnel

If you've ever found yourself nut to butt (ladies, choose your own tight squeeze signifier) on the London Underground--or "tube" as the Brits call their subway--you know that the system, which moves approximately 800 million people a year, is not the most perfect mode of transportation. But, to modify Mr. Kurtz's insightful cry in Heart of Darkness, "the savings, the savings!": a week's pass on the tube runs about $25, essentially what it would cost you to take a cab from an outlying hotel into the West End's theatre district. Combining contemporary footage of the recent Jubilee line extension, with a spotty history of the origin and growth of the "train in the drain," this intermittently engaging production looks at the steps leading up to the opening of the world's first underground railway on January 10, 1863, the problems presented by steam emissions in the pre-electric age, and the installation of the first escalators in 1911 (a man with a wooden leg was hired to ride up and down, assuring wary passengers of the device's safety--although history doesn't elaborate, I'm assuming that for his own safety, he stood on the right). With the Jubilee work, modern engineers faced a whole new set of problems, including tunneling under some of the most expensive real estate in the world (the Whitehall area), and the rather unexpected discovery of the skeletal remains of 678 Cistercian monks. What's missing--and maybe that's to be expected in a program whose focus is largely in the realm of engineering--is any conveyance of the soul of the tube; that is, its phenomenal ability to move humungous numbers of people who (by definition, in such close quarters) tacitly agree to act civilly. A strong optional purchase. The other titles in the series (series price: $59.98) are: The Grasberg Mine: Goldmine in the Clouds, International Space Station: Cities in Space, The Kansai International Airport and NORAD: Eyes of the Free World. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)