Future of Engineering

Here’s an incredible piece of wartime engineering - the grand shaft in dover. Built between 1806 and 1809 during the napoleonic wars, this triple spiral staircase was used as a rapid route for soldiers making their way from the clifftop barracks to the town of dover and its harbour below. Without it the troops had to navigate badly maintained winding roads from top to bottom

A huge 140ft shaft was dug into the ground to house the 3 intertwined staircases, the inner shaft peppered with windows to ensure light from above reached the soldiers running down to possible battle. Engineer William Twiss was adamant that a single staircase wouldn’t provide a big enough route down for a huge volume of people so he wrapped 3 stairways around each other, the 3 exit points meeting at the bottom where a tunnel leads to the town of dover.

Here’s the direct link.

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Labels: Civil-Engineering