Embanking of the tidal Thames
The embanking of the tidal Thames is the process by which the lower River Thames was transformed by human intervention from a broad and shallow waterway winding through malarious marshlands into a deep, narrow tidal canal flowing between solid artificial walls, and restrained by these at high tide. The Victorian civil engineering works in central London, usually called "the Embankment", are a small part of this process.
Source: Wikipedia — Embanking of the tidal Thames (CC BY-SA 4.0)