London's Tower Bridge

During my all too brief visit to London in September 2014, I had set out to do a whirlwind tour of some of the big touristy sites in the city. The Tower Bridge wasn't initially planned to be one of the highlights of my time in London, although I knew I was going to see it because I had planned on spending time at the nearby Tower of London. While touring around the Tower of London was definitely worth the high price of admission, after walking around the historic fortress and palace, I had little interest in waiting on a long line to see Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's crown jewels, so I opted to check out one of the crown jewels of the world of bridges.

While crossing over the River Thames by foot on the Tower Bridge, I discovered that there is a museum and exhibition inside the bridge's towers and the high level observation decks, so I had to check it out. While you visit the museum, you can watch a video about the bridge's design and construction, its opening over 120 years ago, visit an exhibit the observation deck and even visit the engine room. I certainly enjoyed learning about the ins and outs of the Tower Bridge, along with seeing the bridge both inside and out.

View of the Tower Bridge

The Thames has a fair amount of river traffic around the bridge.

The Tower Bridge as seen from the Tower of London. Despite the grand Victorian era design of the Tower Bridge's towers, the bridge is actually named after the Tower of London.

A little closer side view of the center towers and observation deck.

The Tower Bridge is open to both vehicles and foot traffic.

The Tower Bridge is also one of the more detailed bridges that I've visited.

A view of the Thames from the observation deck.

Standing underneath the observation deck of the bridge.


A view of part of London's skyline from the bridge.

Some views inside the bridge's engine room. The bridge was once operated by steam as the bridge's bascule lift was opened and closed. The power source of the bridge was converted to electricity in 1976. It takes about 1 minute and 15 seconds to open or close the lift.

Sources and Links
Tower Bridge Exhibition - Bridge History
Elite Travel Blog - How Long Does Tower Bridge Take To Open and Close?
Londontopia.net - Tower Bridge: 10 Facts and Figures About London's Tower Bridge You Probably Didn't Know
Tower Bridge Exhibition - Tower Bridge Engine Rooms
Flickr - Doug Kerr's Flickr Gallery on the Tower Bridge

Comments

Paper Highways: The Unbuilt New Orleans Bypass (Proposed I-410)

There are many examples around the United States of proposed freeway corridors in urban areas that never saw the light of day for one reason or another. They all fall somewhere in between the little-known and the infamous and from the mundane to the spectacular. One of the more obscure and interesting examples of such a project is the short-lived idea to construct a southern beltway for the New Orleans metropolitan area in the 1960s and 70s. Greater New Orleans and its surrounding area grew rapidly in the years after World War II, as suburban sprawl encroached on the historically rural downriver parishes around the city. In response to the development of the region’s Westbank and the emergence of communities in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist Parishes as viable suburban communities during this period, regional planners began to consider concepts for new infrastructure projects to serve this growing population. The idea for a circular freeway around the southern perimeter of t

Hernando de Soto Bridge (Memphis, TN)

The newest of the bridges that span the lower Mississippi River at Memphis, the Hernando de Soto Bridge was completed in 1973 and carries Interstate 40 between downtown Memphis and West Memphis, AR. The bridge’s signature M-shaped superstructure makes it an instantly recognizable landmark in the city and one of the most visually unique bridges on the Mississippi River. As early as 1953, Memphis city planners recommended the construction of a second highway bridge across the Mississippi River to connect the city with West Memphis, AR. The Memphis & Arkansas Bridge had been completed only four years earlier a couple miles downriver from downtown, however it was expected that long-term growth in the metro area would warrant the construction of an additional bridge, the fourth crossing of the Mississippi River to be built at Memphis, in the not-too-distant future. Unlike the previous three Mississippi River bridges to be built the city, the location chosen for this bridge was about two

Memphis & Arkansas Bridge (Memphis, TN)

Like the expansion of the railroads the previous century, the modernization of the country’s highway infrastructure in the early and mid 20th Century required the construction of new landmark bridges along the lower Mississippi River (and nation-wide for that matter) that would facilitate the expected growth in overall traffic demand in ensuing decades. While this new movement had been anticipated to some extent in the Memphis area with the design of the Harahan Bridge, neither it nor its neighbor the older Frisco Bridge were capable of accommodating the sharp rise in the popularity and demand of the automobile as a mode of cross-river transportation during the Great Depression. As was the case 30 years prior, the solution in the 1940s was to construct a new bridge in the same general location as its predecessors, only this time the bridge would be the first built exclusively for vehicle traffic. This bridge, the Memphis & Arkansas Bridge, was completed in 1949 and was the third

Gribblenation

Search This Blog