Yes, water was used in the operation of this bridge! And it provided power in abundance-twice as much as was needed. It was hydraulic power that lifted the bridge’s bascules, moved the passenger elevators from road level to the walkways, and even worked the signaling. Ships up to a tonnage of 10,000 can pass safely underneath. These giant leaves of the bridge weigh some 1,200 tons each and swing apart and upward to an angle of 86 degrees. The roadways leading from each riverbank terminate in a counterweighted bascule, or seesaw. Tower Bridge has two main towers connected at a high level by two walkways 110 feet above the roadway and some 139 feet above the river’s average high-water mark. Designed with fashionable methods of construction using steel frame with masonry cladding, the now famous shape of Tower Bridge grew from his team’s drawing board.
Jones had traveled widely, and the small drawbridges that spanned canals in the Netherlands gave him the idea of a counter-balancing bascule bridge. This design incorporated what many considered to be a novel feature.
#Old tower bridge free#
It would provide free passage for ships heading westward up the Thames to the docks. Back then, the shipping was so thick that it was said one could walk for many a mile across the adjoining decks of docked vessels.Īt the instigation of the Corporation of London, city architect Horace Jones proposed a Gothic-style drawbridge to be built downstream from London Bridge. Beneath it ships from around the world jostled for position in the crowded port. By 1750 that bridge straddled the river on shaky foundations and was a bottleneck for crossing traffic. The present-day Tower Bridge developed from this official proposal.ĭuring the 18th and 19th centuries, numerous bridges connected the banks of the Thames, the most famous being Old London Bridge. Despite objections from the Tower’s governor, Parliament decided to pursue this idea of another crossing, provided its design harmonized with the style of the Tower. Back in 1872, England’s Parliament considered a bill to authorize the building of a bridge over the Thames. Not to be confused with its neighbor London Bridge, Tower Bridge is associated with the nearby Tower of London. Tower Bridge is one of London’s best-known landmarks. Every day, London residents cross it, perhaps without a glance or a thought of its origins. FOREIGNERS who have never traveled to England recognize it.
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