London transport from Roman roads to tunnelling shields

The Roman-road section covers camber, drainage channels, and stepping stones designed around pedestrian and wheeled traffic. Mud could drain into roadside channels while people crossed above the road surface, showing how the same structure served carts and pedestrians differently. Later pages range across steam carriages and Thames bridges, including Putney and Westminster, before reaching Marc Isambard Brunel's tunnelling shield. The shield protected workers as they excavated forward while brick lining was built behind them. The modern tunnel-boring machine is presented as a mechanised development of that earlier protected method rather than an invention without precedent. The chapter traces transport engineering as cumulative adaptation across roads, bridges, vehicles, and underground construction.