Volume Eleven - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - some more aspects - Handbook to Penarth Dock & Ely Tidal Harbour - 1904 . . .

Subway under Ely Tidal Harbour.

Entrance to Subway under Tidal Harbour.

This Subway which connects Penarth Dock with the Penarth or Ely Tidal Harbour, was authorised by the Taff Vale Railway Act, 1896. Formerly there was a ferry at this point, but it was found to be so inconvenient to cross the Tidal Harbour by that means that the company decided to construct the Subway and do away with the ferry, whereby the distance by road between Cardiff and Penarth has been reduced by one mile, and the convenience of the public largely augmented.

The Subway is 1,257 feet long, and was opened for public traffic on the 14th May, 1900. The diameter of the tube is 10 feet externally and 8 feet 10 inches internally, and the footway is 6 feet wide, with 7 feet 6 inches headroom in the centre. Provision has been made for carrying four pipes through the Subway, so that the gas, hydraulic, and water services on both sides of the Harbour, can be joined together.

The lowest point of the footway is 65 feet 9 inches below the dock coping, and the gradients at each end are one in nine joined at the lowest part by a vertical curve of 800 feet radius. The cast-iron tube is of two thicknesses :  1 inch under the land, and 1 and three-quarter inches under the water.