Wapping or Edge Hill Tunnel in Liverpool, England, was constructed to enable goods services to operate between Liverpool docks and Manchester, and all points between, as part of the planned Liverpool and Manchester Railway. It was the first tunnel in the world to be bored under a metropolis. The tunnel is 6,660 feet (2,030 m) m long, and runs downhill from Edge Hill cutting, near the Crown Street Station goods yard in the east of the city, to Park Lane Goods Station near Wapping Dock. It now passes beneath the Merseyrail Northern Line approximately a quarter of a mile south of Central Station.
The original proposal for the railway out of Liverpool ran north along the docks, but this route proved very unpopular with local landowners. The new route required considerable engineering works in addition to the tunnel. The 1 in 48 gradient was much too steep for the steam locomotives of the day. A stationary steam engine was installed at Edge Hill cutting in a short tunnel bored into the rock near the Moorish Arch to haul goods wagons by rope up from the Park Lane good station at the south end docks. The goods wagons were connected to locomotives at Edge Hill for the continuing journey to Manchester. The tunnel opened in 1830 and closed on 15 May 1972.
The dockside entrance to the tunnel is clearly visible on Kings Dock Street Liverpool. This was the middle of three short exit tunnels at the western end, which junctioned in a short open ventilation cutting between Park Lane and Upper Frederick Street. The quoted length of 2030m includes both the main tunnel and the short exit tunnel.
The Edge Hill entrance is still open to the air, but not accessible to the public. The portal is the central of three tunnels at the western end of the cutting. The right hand tunnel is the original 1829 tunnel into Crown Street Station. The left hand tunnel being a the later 1846 tunnel into the Crown Street good yard. This tunnel currently has tracks and overhead electric wires in place, for use as a headshunt and locomotive run-round for goods trains. However, artwork from before the third tunnel was constructed shows that a portal was already present from the outset - this was purely for architectural symmetry being a store room.
Other visible evidence of the tunnel still exists, in the form of three imposing red brick towers, which act as ventilation shafts for the tunnel. One is on the landscaped park between Crown Street and Smithdown Lane, one on Blackburne Place (illustration), and one close to Grenville Street South. There were at least two others that were later demolished, one adjacent to Great George Street, and one by Myrtle Street.
In the 1970s, during planning work for the Merseyrail underground in Liverpool city centre, there were two proposals to use parts of the Wapping Tunnel or Waterloo Tunnel (Victoria Tunnel) to connect Liverpool Central and Edge Hill junction.
In May 2007 it was reported that Merseytravel Chief Executive Neil Scales had prepared a report outlining the possibilities for reuse of the tunnel.[1][2]