The Thames Embankment is an embankment that was built as part of the London Main Drainage (1859-1875) by the Metropolitan Board of Works, a pioneering Victorian civil engineering project which housed interceptor sewers, which collect the water from many sewer lines, as well as roads and underground railways, and also embanked the River Thames. Embankment is a form of land reclamation, and the project consisted of the Victoria Embankment and Chelsea Embankment on the north side and the Albert Embankment on the south. Designed by the Chief Engineer Joseph Bazalgette, it modernised London's infrastructure, improving public health, mobility, and the image of the British capital.