There are more ways than ever to listen to History Daily ad-free.

Listen with Wondry Plus in the Wondry app.

As a member of NoisorPlus at noisor.com or in Apple Podcasts, or you can get all of History

daily plus other fantastic history podcasts at IntoHistory.com.

It's January 12th, 1828, and about 75 feet beneath the River Thames in London.

Isambarb Kingdom Brunel grips his shovel and digs at the clay mud in front of him.

Isambarb's famous father is chief engineer on the Thames Tunnel Project.

And Isambard is proud to be part of this historic attempt to build the first-ever passage beneath a navigable river.

But it's dangerous work.

If the support system that holds the tunnel intact fails, Isambard and his crew could drown.

But Isambard isn't worried. He's confident in the integrity of the wooden planks and iron scaffolding his crew have installed

to keep them safe while they finish the project.

Isambard keeps shoveling away, then sighs and wipes the sweat from his brow.

As he looks up at his men who toil at the top of the scaffolding,

Isambard sees a distressing sight.

The wooden planks overhead seem wet.

Then they begin to creak under the weight of the mighty river above.

The creaking grows louder, then turns into cracking and splintering,

and then a violent

torrent of water gushes down from above. The deluge knocks miners from the high scaffolding,

extinguishes every lantern in its path, and plunges the tunnel into darkness. Isambard scrambards

scrambles to get out of the tunnel before he drowns. But there's only one route of escape,

...