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How the world's first metro system was built - Christian Wolmar

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TEDEd Animation

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It was the dawn of 1863, and London's not-yet-opened subway system — the first of its kind in the world — had the city in an uproar. Most people thought the project, which cost more than 100 million dollars in today's money, would never work. So how did they do it? Christian Wolmar explains how the London Underground was built at a time when no one had built a railway under a city before.

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Meet The Creators

  • Educator Christian Wolmar
  • Director Biljana Labović
  • Script Editor Dan Kwartler
  • Animator Inna Phillimore
  • Designer Inna Phillimore
  • Sound Designer Stephen LaRosa
  • Associate Producer Bethany Cutmore-Scott, Elizabeth Cox
  • Content Producer Gerta Xhelo
  • Editorial Producer Alex Rosenthal
  • Narrator Addison Anderson
  • Fact-Checker Francisco Diez

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