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Tower Bridge is a bascule bridge in London, over the River Thames. It is close to the Tower of London, which gives it its name. It is often accidentally called London Bridge, which is the next bridge upstream. The bridge is owned and maintained by Bridge House Estates, a charitable trust overseen by the Corporation of London.

Construction of the bridge started in 1886 and took 8 years, employing 5 major contractors and 432 construction workers. Two massive piers, containing over 70,000 tons of concrete, were sunk into the river bed to support the construction. Over 11,000 tons of steel provided the framework for the towers and walkways. This was then clad in Cornish granite and Portland stone, both to protect the underlying steelwork and to give the bridge a pleasing appearance.

Jones died in 1887, and his chief engineer, Sir John Wolfe-Barry, took over the project. Wolfe-Barry replaced Jones’ original mediaeval style of facade with the more ornate Victorian gothic style that makes the bridge a distinctive landmark.

The bridge was opened on 30 June 1894 by the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, and his wife, Alexandra of Denmark.

[Description source: Wikipedia]

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 1st, 2006 at 12:53 am and is filed under Bridges. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.