Tower Bridges:
History of the Tower Bridge in London
Tower Bridge, one of London’s most well-known landmarks, is a bascule and suspension bridge on the River Thames. It includes two Victorian Gothic-style towers connected to two walkways designed to oppose flat forces from suspended scaffolding. The base of each pinnacle houses machinery that elevate two parts of the scaffold, allowing for stream passage beneath it. Tower Bridge is located near the Tower of London, from whence it derives its name.
The bridge is made up of two bridge towers connected at the higher level by two horizontal walkways, which are designed to bear the horizontal tension stresses imposed by the bridge’s suspended portions on the towers’ landward sides. The two strong towers carry the vertical components of the forces in the suspended parts, as well as the vertical responses of the two walkways. The bascule pivots and operational mechanism are located at the base of each tower. Prior to its restoration in the 2010s, the bridge’s color scheme was red, white, and blue in honor of Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee in 1977. Its colours were eventually restored to blue and white.
The East End of London experienced such rapid economic growth in the second half of the nineteenth century that it sought another stream bridge. In 1876, a “Unique Bridge or Subway Committee” was formed to seek an answer. Approximately 50 outlines were presented, but due to extensive discussion, it took eight years for one plan to be approved. Sir Horace Jones, the City Architect, created the outline in collaboration with John Wolfe Barry. Development began in 1886 and continued until 1894. Five groups and 432 workers chipped away at it. It has 70,000 tons of cement in installations and around 10,000 tons of steel, and is covered in Cornish rock and Portland stone as ways of assurance for steel construction and as a decorative component. The Victorian Gothic design is used to gracefully blend Tower Bridge with the nearby Tower of London. On June 30, 1894, the ruler and princess of Wales formally opened the scaffold. The extension connected Horselydown Lane, now Tower Bridge Road, and Iron Gate, now Tower Bridge Approach.
Because the extension is close to the harbour, it was critical that it be designed such that boats could pass through. Water-powered steam motors were used to lift bascules until 1974, when they were replaced by an electro-pressure-driven drive structure. A number of the antique steam machinery have been preserved as a tourist attraction and are part of the historical center’s journey across the Tower Bridge.
Tower Bridge is still under construction and is a significant crossroads on the Thames. Every day, around 40,000 people cross between the two headings. While it was manually operated from the outset, a PC controls framework was installed in 2000, allowing bascules to be lifted and lowered remotely. Bascules are raised around three times every day, and a ship must provide 24 hours’ notice before passing.
The bridge deck is freely accessible to both vehicles and pedestrians, but the bridge’s twin towers, high-level walkways, and Victorian engine rooms are part of the Tower Bridge Exhibition, which requires an admission fee. The nearest London Underground tube stations are Tower Hill on the Circle and District lines, London Bridge on the Jubilee and Northern lines, and Bermondsey on the Jubilee line, while Tower Gateway is the nearest Docklands Light Railway station. The nearest National Rail stations are Fenchurch Street and London Bridge.
Following their closure in 1910, walkways were reopened in 1982 as part of the Tower Bridge Exhibition. The exhibition displays images, shows, and movies that convey a story of Tower Bridge and are housed in scaffold towers, walkways of the extension, and Victorian carriage rooms.
Bridge Tower underwent four-year renovations beginning in 2008. Metal pieces were stripped of their original finish and repainted in white and blue. New lights, both functional and barometrical, were installed in walkways, and suspension chains were repainted with six layers of protective paint. Next redesigns are planned for 25 years.
The Tower Bridge Exhibition is set up in the bridge’s twin towers, high-level walkways, and Victorian engine rooms. It uses videos, images, and interactive displays to illustrate why and how Tower Bridge was created. Visitors can see the original steam engines that powered the bridge bascules, which are kept in a structure near the south end of the bridge.
The exhibition requires an admission fee. Visitors enter from the west side of the bridge deck to the northern tower, where they take a lift to level 4 before crossing the high-level walkways to the southern tower. The towers and walkways house an exhibition on the bridge’s history. The walkways also offer views of the city, the Tower of London, and the Pool of London, and contain a glass-floored part. Visitors to the south tower can visit the engine rooms, which house the original steam engines and are located in a separate building near the bridge’s southern approach.
Tower Bridge is frequently mistaken for London Bridge, the next bridge upstream. According to popular urban legend, in 1968, Robert P. McCulloch, the buyer of the old London Bridge that was ultimately brought to Lake Havasu City in Arizona, thought he was purchasing Tower Bridge. McCulloch refuted this, and Ivan Luckin, the bridge’s dealer, has debunked it.
A partial copy of the Tower Bridge has been created in Suzhou, China. The copy differs from the original in that it lacks a lifting mechanism and features four independent towers. Tower Bridge was one of four buildings chosen by architectural historian Dan Cruickshank for the BBC television documentary Britain’s Best Buildings in 2002.
Leave feedback about this