Work began on the long-projected tunnel beneath the Thames, between Rotherhithe and Wapping in March 1825. The work under the direction of Marc Isambard Brunel and his Thames Tunnel Company of 1824. In April Marc Brunel fell ill and his son, the famous Isambard Kingdom Brunel, then barely twenty years old, took over the direction; on 3 January 1827 he was made Resident Engineer. There were innumberable difficulties and on 12 January 1828 Brunel was injured and nearly drowned. The tunnel was finally opened in March 1843. (see J. Pudney, Brunel and his World, 1974, pp. 11-21, with various contemporary illustrations).