Tower
Bridgeis
a bridge in London, England, over the
River Thames. It is close to the Tower
of London, which gives it its name. It
is occasionally incorrectly referred to
as London Bridge, which is in fact the
next bridge upstream.
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 more
pleasing appearance.
Jones
died in 1887, and his chief engineer,
Sir John Wolfe-Barry, took over the
project. Wolfe-Barry replaced Jones'
original medieval style of facade with
the more ornate Victorian gothic style
that makes the bridge such a distinctive
landmark.
The
bridge was opened in 1894. The official
opening ceremony was conducted by the
Prince of Wales, the future King Edward
VII of the United Kingdom and his wife,
Alexandra of Denmark.
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In
the second half of the nineteenth century
increased commercial development in the
East End of London led to a requirement
for a new river crossing downstream of
London Bridge. However, a traditional
bridge could not be built because it would
cut off access to the port facilities
situated at that time in the Pool of London,
between London Bridge and the Tower of
London. A tunnel beneath the Thames, the
Tower Subway, was opened in 1870, but
it could only accommodate pedestrian traffic.
A
Special Bridge or Subway Committee was
formed in 1876 to find a solution to
the river crossing problem. It opened
the design of the new crossing to public
competition. Over 50 designs were submitted,
including one from civil engineer Sir
Joseph Bazalgette. However, the evaluation
of the designs was surrounded by controversy,
and it was not until 1884 that a design
submitted by Horace Jones, the City
Architect, was finally approved.
Jones'
design was for a bascule bridge 800
feet (244 m) in length with two towers
each 213 feet (65 m) high, built on
piers. The central span of 200 feet
(61 m) between the towers is split into
two equal bascules or leaves, which
can be raised to an angle of 86 degrees
to allow river traffic to pass through.
Although each bascule weighs over 1,000
tons, they are counterbalanced to minimise
the force and time required to raise
them, and they can be raised in under
one minute. The original hydraulic raising
mechanism was powered by pressurised
water stored in six accumulators. Water
was pumped into the accumulators by
steam engines. Although the bridge is
raised today electrically, the original
steam engines are preserved as a visitor
attraction.
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