Simon I wanted to share my sewer experiences in the 1970’s under Detroit. Like your video parts of the storm sewer was bricked and very large. I was in college for concrete engineering. So my main job was surveying the sewer system and anything else helpful. The brick work of the masons back 80 years before was a work of art. No brick was wasted. Patterns of small bricks were creating amazing designs in the brickwork. Unfortunately we’re 50 below the surface of Detroit. The oldest part of the storm sewer system. Was made of rough cut large oak planks. Our job was to place wire mesh and rebar on the oak walls and spray with a hydraulic concrete. The ceiling had old giant telephone lines attached so we left them alone. At one large intersection we had lunch tables and work desks. All built due to the access hole of 4 x4 feet wide. The sewer rats were big like cats, but never seen humans before. The some rats befriend the workers and during breaks and lunch would dance for food. Our survey rat friend we called floppy due to a floppy ear. The sewer was blocked off so no water would flow during a rain. Our work took over 7 months but I experience the underground world. I changed my college studies to computer and networking. Great video. I rarely comment but wanted to share.
What's a storm sewer? Is it drainage for storm/rain water only, or does it combine storm water and waste water (aka stinky poopy toilet water) together?
@@mrshinebox1803 in the movie it, pennywise lurkes in storm sewers. It's basically a sewer that redirects water from rain, not mixed with sanitary septic systems. Typically they are 4ftx4ft concrete tunnel with the intersections being brick funnels to road manholes. And the brickwork is very well done. I've been in one im 5'4" and it's a leg workout. Usually after a rain it dont smell to bad, sort of like a cave smell. A mist/fog with a cool draft(60°f) it's surprisingly nice on a hot summer day. If you do have a instrument I'd recommend you bring it, it echos very nicely. Even playing music from your phone is unreal. I would be careful inside them I don't know what other gas aside from oxygen is in there. You won't have any phone reception, no one won't find anyone's body for weeks or even months. In fact the entrance to one where I live (a creek) someone was found dead. Maybe some paint-huffin homeless guy or worse. . . Pennywise
Amazing history of true craftsmanship❤ But stupid, cheap and terrible for “getting with the times to save lives” 😢 Detroit has terrible infrastructure…no one wonders why 💭 Sinkholes anyone😂 terribly cheap, back than, even worse and more corrupt
As a licensed wastewater treatment engineer, I have profound respect for such a vast and complex system whose functional operational success is evident by its sheer invisibility from public notice, yet becomes obnoxiously apparent only in failure.
I'd love to see a SideProjects about the abandoned bits of the Tube; like Aldwych, where the British Museum's collection was stored during the Blitz. I know you've done a MegaProjects on the Tube as a whole but it's a massive rabbithole of video ideas.
Wait, 500M$ in today's dollar to build, from scratch, by hand, the entire brand new sewer system for the largest city in the world? Man today for that price you barely get 1 new subway station!
Being so maticulous with the brickies. I'd like to say he raised the trade standard for the whole city in that way making every construction after far superior.
I first came across Bazalgette in a book by Terry Pratchett called Dodger. Made me look into the historical characters he wrote into the novel. Great topic Simon.
Hi Simon, glad you did this video. While I’m not a Londoner, the London sewer tha bazelgette constructed has fascinated me Ever since I saw a short documentary on the subject years ago. But hadn’t seen much on this subject since. Hopefully more people understand the importance of The London Sewer system. And I’m glad they’ve begun to upgrade the system before it becomes an issue.
Awesome video! One of those situations where you always hear about the problem and never the solution (in another country anyway). So cool to know the rest of the story.
London Ontario had pipes made of hollowed out trees for over 100 years in the oldest parts of the city up until this decade; now, they have been replaced
Same with the original new York city water system. The Chase Manhattan logo is a cross section of that type of wooden pipe. Because Chase started out as the Chase Manhattan water company.
2:10 - Chapter 1 - Waste not , want not 5:30 - Chapter 2 - The great stink 7:20 - Chapter 3 - The man with the plan 11:10 - Chapter 4 - Saving lives for generations 13:10 - Chapter 5 - Balzagette & beyond
I was prepared to hear that the Prince of Wales had inaugurated the new sewer by ceremonially flushing down the first log, but I suppose Victorians didn't do things that way.
My hometown (founded in 1873) just recently posted on their Facebook page of having to unclog several of the sewer lines because of flushable wipes. Yeah they'll flush, but they DO NOT DISSOLVE! Those that don't end up stuck in the pipes have to be scraped off the filters at the water treatment plant. Trust me. The last thing you want is sewage backing up into your house because it has nowhere else to go.
Great video but one very glaring oversight is in order. Bazelgett (sorry if that’s misspelled) did not create the egg shaped sewer, James Neulans did in Liverpool- nearly a decade before the Great Stink. Joseph merely followed suit and utilized the same concept. His idea to narrow the Thames however was an original concept, and not only allowed him to reshape London and provide room for the sewers, it also provided a place for some of the first underground railway.
If you want to start with the rabbit hole of the sewer subject may I suggest looking up the lost rivers of London most of them were taken underground and used to keep the system's water flowing
I'd love to see one on that. I have a book "The Lost Rivers of London" - can't remember by whom - and it's fascinating, but would still like to know more. I know that one part of one river runs in a cast-iron tube above the platform of an underground station; can't remember the names of either.
Apparently, he is one part of the world's only set of identical undenuplets. They all work together to pump amazing content over 11 RUclips channels. Fun fact 😂
Yea it's mainly when the old sewers overflow it gets dumped into the Thames, the Thames Tideway will take the overflow in future to the Beckton water treatment plant to the east
It all certainly had a most pungent aroma. Especially noticeable in heat wave conditions for days on end. An unmistakable smell impossible to describe.
This project originally was no more than solving a problem by getting rid of your garbage by throwing it over your neighbors fence. It really only shifted it down stream for the tidal wash to take care of it. Out of sight out of mind, someone else’s problem. 🇦🇺
I'm sure that you've done this one before ..., can't remember which channel it was under but I reckon that the title was actually The Big Stink. Anyway, nice to know that one of Bazalgette's descendents has brought shit to our TV screens as well in the infamous Big Brother series
I believe without a doubt that as impressive as this video and subject may be, it was an effort to see if and how many viewers would watch. I watched...
I loved that series! BBC produced it. It used to be on Netflix, but not any more (at least not here in Canada). I'm always on the lookout for DVDs that aren't $100+ (it's either out of print or you can only buy the things FROM BBC directly) so I can finally watch it again.
So here is the REAL CONSPIRACY: Neither Danny nor any other writer is being held by Simon; it's the other way around!!!! How else could Simon be constantly producing videos if he wasn't held captive in some basement. Look, aside from some background decorations he's essentially in a dark dungeon. We are unable to see the chains just below camera view. Finally consider that Simon is supposed to be in "Prague". More accurately he's somewhere in eastern Albania in a "Taken" sort of situation. He was on vacation in the Continent when he was kidnapped and sold to writers. The fact that these sadistic writers force Simon to read their copy is bad enough. It's worse with the ironic joke that Simon is the captor when he is clearly the prisoner. Stay strong, Simon. Free Simon! Free Simon!!
@@derekgardiner3583 mostly because you said I just follow Simon implying that he was the only one you follow 😂 I'm just having fun with you and driving up the algorithms. I hope you have an awesome day 💛
It is a common misconception that Joseph Bazalgette receives his knighthood due to his work on the London Sewer System. Actually, he was knighted for having the most awesome mustache in all of Victorian England. While we’re on the subject of waste disposal, how about a Biographics on Thomas Crapper?
In the very beginning of your video you said that building the sewer system was not necessarily a life and death situation and actually it was there were thousands and thousands of people dying from cholera and other water related diseases
Would love to see a video about the F-15. Even in the age of 5th gen fighter jets the us air force is buying the newest version to this plane. Also I just love the fact that they managed to pull of a air to air kill with a 2000lb bomb from an F-15E.
Strange, nasty confirmation for me that I have never had a desire to visit England. I have done a tour of Southern Ireland and hope to return there again in 2023, God willing that I live that long.
Agreed! but if they took it a bit less for granted and stopped flushing items that were never meant to be flushed, it'd make the engineers' jobs a lot easier.
I have a book, "London under London" - can't remember who wrote it - and it goes into all the tunnels, chambers, secret rooms etc that are known to be under the city - stress "known" because it said that nobody knows how many tunnels are under the Thames, much less some of the other hush-hush stuff.
Simon I wanted to share my sewer experiences in the 1970’s under Detroit. Like your video parts of the storm sewer was bricked and very large. I was in college for concrete engineering. So my main job was surveying the sewer system and anything else helpful. The brick work of the masons back 80 years before was a work of art. No brick was wasted. Patterns of small bricks were creating amazing designs in the brickwork. Unfortunately we’re 50 below the surface of Detroit. The oldest part of the storm sewer system. Was made of rough cut large oak planks. Our job was to place wire mesh and rebar on the oak walls and spray with a hydraulic concrete. The ceiling had old giant telephone lines attached so we left them alone.
At one large intersection we had lunch tables and work desks. All built due to the access hole of 4 x4 feet wide. The sewer rats were big like cats, but never seen humans before. The some rats befriend the workers and during breaks and lunch would dance for food. Our survey rat friend we called floppy due to a floppy ear. The sewer was blocked off so no water would flow during a rain. Our work took over 7 months but I experience the underground world. I changed my college studies to computer and networking.
Great video. I rarely comment but wanted to share.
Epic response. Rarely in my days on RUclips have I read anything more worthy of archival reporting.
What kind of surveying were you doing? Like inspecting and reporting on the condition? Or like measuring with a theodolite?
What's a storm sewer? Is it drainage for storm/rain water only, or does it combine storm water and waste water (aka stinky poopy toilet water) together?
@@mrshinebox1803 in the movie it, pennywise lurkes in storm sewers. It's basically a sewer that redirects water from rain, not mixed with sanitary septic systems. Typically they are 4ftx4ft concrete tunnel with the intersections being brick funnels to road manholes. And the brickwork is very well done. I've been in one im 5'4" and it's a leg workout. Usually after a rain it dont smell to bad, sort of like a cave smell. A mist/fog with a cool draft(60°f) it's surprisingly nice on a hot summer day. If you do have a instrument I'd recommend you bring it, it echos very nicely. Even playing music from your phone is unreal. I would be careful inside them I don't know what other gas aside from oxygen is in there. You won't have any phone reception, no one won't find anyone's body for weeks or even months. In fact the entrance to one where I live (a creek) someone was found dead. Maybe some paint-huffin homeless guy or worse. . . Pennywise
Amazing history of true craftsmanship❤
But stupid, cheap and terrible for “getting with the times to save lives” 😢
Detroit has terrible infrastructure…no one wonders why 💭
Sinkholes anyone😂 terribly cheap, back than, even worse and more corrupt
John Snow: "guys, it's not bad air that's making people sick, its bad water."
19th century scientists: "you know nothing, John Snow"
Lol! That’s what I think of now whenever I hear his story!
Someone had to say it.
"Alright, keep dying then."
I saw the subject of this video and then immediately came to the comments to find this exact joke.
As a licensed wastewater treatment engineer, I have profound respect for such a vast and complex system whose functional operational success is evident by its sheer invisibility from public notice, yet becomes obnoxiously apparent only in failure.
I'd love to see a SideProjects about the abandoned bits of the Tube; like Aldwych, where the British Museum's collection was stored during the Blitz. I know you've done a MegaProjects on the Tube as a whole but it's a massive rabbithole of video ideas.
NYC also has lots of weird, unused subway bits. The stuff that lurks under these metropolitan behemoths is wild...
@@timothyoswald8618 Yes! That'd be amazing!
As a Civil/Structural Engineer, this man is magnificent.
Wait, 500M$ in today's dollar to build, from scratch, by hand, the entire brand new sewer system for the largest city in the world? Man today for that price you barely get 1 new subway station!
It wouldn’t even get you the foundation dug for the station 🤣🤣🤣
Who told you London is the world largest city😂
And they expect us to believe the sewer came after the city
This video told you @@Yolaf_
@@Yolaf_it was at the time of building the sewer system.
Bazalgette along with Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Augustus Pugin were the best of the best. Thanks for posting.....
Being so maticulous with the brickies. I'd like to say he raised the trade standard for the whole city in that way making every construction after far superior.
I first came across Bazalgette in a book by Terry Pratchett called Dodger. Made me look into the historical characters he wrote into the novel. Great topic Simon.
Hi Simon, glad you did this video. While I’m not a Londoner, the London sewer tha bazelgette constructed has fascinated me
Ever since I saw a short documentary on the subject years ago. But hadn’t seen much on this subject since.
Hopefully more people understand the importance of The London Sewer system.
And I’m glad they’ve begun to upgrade the system before it becomes an issue.
Damn it Simon. Yet another rabbithole with interesting content.
I’d love to see y’all do a video over The Super Guppy! Big fan of the channel and looking forward to your future projects!
Hey S.W. I really enjoyed this Episode of Megaprojects. I'm a sucker for Victorian infrastructure projects.
Awesome video! One of those situations where you always hear about the problem and never the solution (in another country anyway). So cool to know the rest of the story.
New channel ?? Bro you're already the hardest working man on YT .
London Ontario had pipes made of hollowed out trees for over 100 years in the oldest parts of the city up until this decade; now, they have been replaced
Same with the original new York city water system. The Chase Manhattan logo is a cross section of that type of wooden pipe. Because Chase started out as the Chase Manhattan water company.
@@Praisethesunson Close enough, they merged with Chase National, but I believe you are right about the logo.
Seriously ?? I grew up in London & had no idea!!
@@hbailie9115 the pipes in my town were being replaced n I asked one of the workers the weirdest thing he'd seen n that was his answer! So wild!
That tree had to be Hella polished on the inside
As a fourth generation plumber I've heard of him but it's much nicer to hear you telling it.
Friend of mine was a tosher and told us some stories; not a job I'd fancy much.
I've lived in London for the first 27 years of my life and let me tell you, the sewer system is not just underground.
True. That said, those of us who spend time in the developing world really appreciate the efforts made in London thanks to J. Bazalgette.
@@owenshebbeare2999 many from the developing world occupy many areas in London, some of those areas being 100% non-native Brits
Ancient public works speak more about humanity than any temple ever will!
Amen!
Very impressed by the content. Great job!
Came here to see Whistler tactfully avoid the "Thames River" vs "The River Thames"
Fact Boy delivered. Genius.
I really hope they bring some of the old sewer up that theyre replacing
I literally just wrote a paper on John Snow and Chicago raising the entire city so the sewage would run into lake Michigan.
2:10 - Chapter 1 - Waste not , want not
5:30 - Chapter 2 - The great stink
7:20 - Chapter 3 - The man with the plan
11:10 - Chapter 4 - Saving lives for generations
13:10 - Chapter 5 - Balzagette & beyond
I was prepared to hear that the Prince of Wales had inaugurated the new sewer by ceremonially flushing down the first log, but I suppose Victorians didn't do things that way.
Good show old chap!
🇬🇧👍👍
A revolutionary design, not since the Romans..
love the channel, and topics like this specifically
So you like the shit 💩 topics...
Seems like "Bazzle Jet" would be a perfect name for a bidet...
My hometown (founded in 1873) just recently posted on their Facebook page of having to unclog several of the sewer lines because of flushable wipes. Yeah they'll flush, but they DO NOT DISSOLVE! Those that don't end up stuck in the pipes have to be scraped off the filters at the water treatment plant.
Trust me. The last thing you want is sewage backing up into your house because it has nowhere else to go.
Great video but one very glaring oversight is in order. Bazelgett (sorry if that’s misspelled) did not create the egg shaped sewer, James Neulans did in Liverpool- nearly a decade before the Great Stink. Joseph merely followed suit and utilized the same concept. His idea to narrow the Thames however was an original concept, and not only allowed him to reshape London and provide room for the sewers, it also provided a place for some of the first underground railway.
Yes!! I’d been asking for this one basically since Megaprojects was created. 🤣 Thanks!
If you want to start with the rabbit hole of the sewer subject may I suggest looking up the lost rivers of London
most of them were taken underground and used to keep the system's water flowing
I'd love to see one on that. I have a book "The Lost Rivers of London" - can't remember by whom - and it's fascinating, but would still like to know more. I know that one part of one river runs in a cast-iron tube above the platform of an underground station; can't remember the names of either.
Great video thanks for making it
Top shelf episode! Before they built the proper waste management system here in Melbourne it was referred to as 'Smellbourne'... Fun aussie fact Lols
awesome video!!
Give us clean water! We shall all have the cholera! was the cry.
This man Is a megaproject himself. Keep up the good work Simon 👍
Apparently, he is one part of the world's only set of identical undenuplets. They all work together to pump amazing content over 11 RUclips channels. Fun fact 😂
“You know nothing John Snow! Oh wait, you do”
So my claim to fame .
I worked with his great grandchild for a number of years ... he's a talented musician 🙂
Cool! Nice one bud 👍
Perfect video for breakfast
Good video 👍
The biggest takeaway from this: more than 5% of Londoners still shit in the Thames. 15:32
Or rain water is sometimes treated separately...
Yea it's mainly when the old sewers overflow it gets dumped into the Thames, the Thames Tideway will take the overflow in future to the Beckton water treatment plant to the east
Simon’s the hardest working man on RUclips.
Should have reconsidered watching this over a meal lol, but fascinating stuff nonetheless. I love learning about infrastructure projects like this.
So Joseph gave us the sewer system and his grandson gave us Big Brother…. The apple never falls far from the tree…
I want a megaproject video on Simon's beard growth over the last few years.
Beardographics lo! it shall be known as! Oui la barbe!
Now That's one that belongs Into the Shadows! 🙂
😁😁
YOU KNOW SOMETHING JOHN SNOW !!
It all certainly had a most pungent aroma.
Especially noticeable in heat wave conditions for days on end.
An unmistakable smell impossible to describe.
This project originally was no more than solving a problem by getting rid of your garbage by throwing it over your neighbors fence. It really only shifted it down stream for the tidal wash to take care of it. Out of sight out of mind, someone else’s problem. 🇦🇺
This reminds me of watching seven wonders of the industrial world, its fascinating
A true hero!
I love stuff like this, my morbid curiosity
Into the Shadows is one of my favourites for true!
Hopefully, no starfishes are in there
Mega! Thanks.
"under Londoner's feets"... another nice on Whistler....
Perfect lunch time entertainment 👌🥪
This was a gross and at the same time awesome Megaproject!
I'm sure that you've done this one before ..., can't remember which channel it was under but I reckon that the title was actually The Big Stink. Anyway, nice to know that one of Bazalgette's descendents has brought shit to our TV screens as well in the infamous Big Brother series
I believe without a doubt that as impressive as this video and subject may be, it was an effort to see if and how many viewers would watch. I watched...
Alright, now that I'm not eating, I'm willing to give this one a try...lol
In the future youtube will consist of nothing but Simon Whistler channels...
I was really PUMPED to watch this episode......
Their was great video series made called the 7 wonders of the industrial world that is a great watch
I loved that series! BBC produced it. It used to be on Netflix, but not any more (at least not here in Canada). I'm always on the lookout for DVDs that aren't $100+ (it's either out of print or you can only buy the things FROM BBC directly) so I can finally watch it again.
Don't you have enough channels Simon? I mean I'm definitely going to watch, but damn lol
So here is the REAL CONSPIRACY: Neither Danny nor any other writer is being held by Simon; it's the other way around!!!!
How else could Simon be constantly producing videos if he wasn't held captive in some basement. Look, aside from some background decorations he's essentially in a dark dungeon. We are unable to see the chains just below camera view. Finally consider that Simon is supposed to be in "Prague". More accurately he's somewhere in eastern Albania in a "Taken" sort of situation. He was on vacation in the Continent when he was kidnapped and sold to writers. The fact that these sadistic writers force Simon to read their copy is bad enough. It's worse with the ironic joke that Simon is the captor when he is clearly the prisoner.
Stay strong, Simon.
Free Simon! Free Simon!!
I still say they’re all just Simon’s multiple personalities.
Seriously, someone check if Simon is the record holder for most RUclips channels.
Allegedly. 😁
He might as well just brake out his own SimonTube platform! :P
Thank you so much for covering the Engineer I most look up to. As an Engineer myself, the quiet but incredible work he did is an inspiration.
You should do a side projects episode on the Boeing B-4 (the doomsday plane) because RUclips suggested it to me
Or the tiltrotor plane
It's sort of awesome that Parliament sits right by the Thames- it couldn't help but focus them on the reality of the situation.
Is there a video that describes in more depth the engineering of this mega project?
I jus follow Simon on the internet 🖖😁
You say that but yet your only playlist on your channel has nothing to do with Simon...
@@7-ten the playlists are videos I haven't watched and are going back for, or music vids usually. With Simon's vids I watch them then an there 🤣
@@derekgardiner3583 that's not what you said. You said "I just follow Simon on the internet". So either just follow Simon or quit making false claims.
@@7-ten how is my claim false? I said I follow him on the Internet, not I make playlists of all his videos 😝
@@derekgardiner3583 mostly because you said I just follow Simon implying that he was the only one you follow 😂 I'm just having fun with you and driving up the algorithms. I hope you have an awesome day 💛
11:28 nice bar
It is a common misconception that Joseph Bazalgette receives his knighthood due to his work on the London Sewer System. Actually, he was knighted for having the most awesome mustache in all of Victorian England.
While we’re on the subject of waste disposal, how about a Biographics on Thomas Crapper?
I learnt about this first through the show 7 Wonders of the Industrial World.
The only thing ive learned was that poltics get in the way of public health
Gong farmers! Helper of the farmers to make night soil Gong Farmers!
To the tune of informer, by artist Snow.
Men have had giant statues for doing far less. He should be a national hero.
Last time I was this early Karl Smallwood was a writer for Today I Found Out.
Can you do a video on Antarctic bases? Britain’s secret Operation Tabarin and America’s Operation High Jump?
In the very beginning of your video you said that building the sewer system was not necessarily a life and death situation and actually it was there were thousands and thousands of people dying from cholera and other water related diseases
Comercial ends at 00:28
Would love to see a video about the F-15. Even in the age of 5th gen fighter jets the us air force is buying the newest version to this plane. Also I just love the fact that they managed to pull of a air to air kill with a 2000lb bomb from an F-15E.
I second that, I am also curious about any in the Flanker Series Su 27 onward
I got him to do the YF-23 vs the YF-22.
I got him to do The Thunderbirds.
I'm with you. F-15 is next. That's it....haha
People who clean out those tunnels deserve a raise!
"Things came to a head?" sounds like Simon?
How about a Biographics piece on RUclips legend Simon Whistler??
Four larks and a wren,
Two sparrows and a hen
All make their nests in Simons beard.
Strange, nasty confirmation for me that I have never had a desire to visit England. I have done a tour of Southern Ireland and hope to return there again in 2023, God willing that I live that long.
Bazeljet was a genius!!
How about the Thames barrier?
ouuuh i take the woolwich ferry! well theres 3 now operating
Miasma proponent:
You know nothing John Snow!
Biographics on John Snow and the genesis of epidemiology?
People take this for granted, lets hope they always can.
Agreed! but if they took it a bit less for granted and stopped flushing items that were never meant to be flushed, it'd make the engineers' jobs a lot easier.
@@franl155 When I was a kid working pump house maintenance, we had to deal with nylon stockings of all things. That required a tear-down (yuck).
This is the best sh!t ever.
Under London must be absolutely amazing.
I have a book, "London under London" - can't remember who wrote it - and it goes into all the tunnels, chambers, secret rooms etc that are known to be under the city - stress "known" because it said that nobody knows how many tunnels are under the Thames, much less some of the other hush-hush stuff.
There are boat tours into the Paris sewage system.
You still have business blaze in your channel list. So we really need to remind you that that is a right spectrum news channel xD?
I wouldn't say that a knighthood was the 'highest honour'. The man deserved at least an Earldom!
No way his name is john snow 😄
Wow how many channels do you have 😁😂😂