The Great Stink: When London's River Became a River of Death

Описание: In 1858, London's Thames became so toxic that Parliament fled the city, soaking curtains in lime to escape the overwhelming stench. What followed was one of history's most ambitious underground engineering projects.

• The summer of 1858 brought unprecedented heat that turned the Thames into a festering cauldron of human waste
• London's population explosion overwhelmed ancient waste systems, while new flush toilets made the crisis even worse
• Parliament members soaked curtains in lime and considered abandoning Westminster entirely due to the overwhelming stench
• Dr. John Snow traced cholera outbreaks to contaminated water but authorities dismissed his revolutionary findings
• Engineer Joseph Bazalgette proposed over 1,000 miles of sewers to create a hidden underground empire beneath London
• Desperate politicians finally approved the expensive plan after years of resistance due to the unbearable smell
• Thousands of workers faced deadly conditions including cave-ins, toxic gases, and flooding during construction
• The system used 300 million bricks and featured beautiful underground chambers with decorative ironwork
• When completed, cholera cases plummeted, fish returned to the Thames, and London became livable again
• Bazalgette's sewers still serve London today, over 150 years later, proving exceptional engineering can outlast civilizations

Chapters:
00:00 - London's Crisis of Stench
00:40 - Ancient Waste Systems Collapse
01:20 - Dr. Snow's Ignored Warning
01:55 - The Great Stink of 1858
02:45 - Bazalgette's Revolutionary Plan
03:30 - Deadly Underground Construction
04:15 - The System Opens Successfully
04:50 - London's Remarkable Transformation
05:30 - Legacy of Underground Empire