Landmarks Of London – Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge (built 1886–1894) is one of the iconic symbols of London. Despite its crenelated appearance it is a relative newcomer on the scene, being opened by The Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) in 1894.

It crosses the River Thames near the Tower of London. A combined bascule and suspension bridge, it consists of two bridge towers tied together at the upper level by two horizontal walkways designed to withstand the horizontal tension forces exerted by the suspended sections.

This article comes from the 1966 Eagle Annual that I have used previously. It is most definitely a boys annual, very gender specific in so far as which interests girls and boys should pursue. Nevertheless it makes for very interesting reading and some of the accompanying illustrations are fascinating.

It is one of five London bridges currently owned and maintained by the Bridge House Estates, a charitable trust overseen by the City of London Corporation.

It is the only one of the Trust’s bridges not to connect the City of London directly to Southwark, its northern landfall being in Tower Hamlets.

The two walkways carried by the two robust towers, the haunt of pickpockets and prostitutes in an earlier age, now form part of the Tower Bridge Exhibition as are the two towers and the bascule pivots and Victorian operating machinery housed in the base of each tower.

As part of the Tower Bridge Exhibition, for which an admission charge is made, one of the overhead walkways now has a glass floor allowing visitors to looking down on the pedestrians, road traffic shipping passing beneath.

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, and the nearest Docklands Light Railway station is Tower Gateway. The nearest National Rail stations are at Fenchurch Street and London Bridge.