History Of Tower Bridge London

A need for the Tower Bridge of the city of London was realised when the eastern part of London started developing in the 19th century. As the city turned busier on both sides of the river Thames, a challenge to build an efficient transportation system that doesn’t affect traffic and connect the two sides of the city had arised. The hunt for the design of a bridge as per the requirements of the City of London Corporation could only be materialised in 1884 when Sir Horace Jones turned up with the chosen design for the Tower Bridge. Even though the design of the building was finalised in 1884, the history of Tower Bridge London can be traced back to 1876 when the Subway Committee by the City of London Corporation was founded to handle the work of finding a suitable architectural design and initiate its engineering.

After finalisation of the design, the foundation stone of the bridge was laid in 1886 by the Prince of Wales. This marvellous beauty and one of the biggest landmarks of the city is hard earned with the efforts of tireless labour of 432 labourers building the tower gradually over a duration of 8 years. The construction began with constructing a solid foundation for the two large piers deep in the riverbed. This bridge is the perfect example of architecture marvel involving engineering and art, making it the most sophisticated suspension bridge in the world. The highlight of the bridge is its central span that splits into two bascules to give way to a ship. The beauty and history of tower bridge London can also be realised with its iconic Vistorian Gothic style giving the bridge a strikingly enchanting outlook alongside an unusually charming architectural design.

When the bridge was finally ready in 1894, the Prince and Princess of Wales were invited over to inaugurate it who gave green flag for its operation. They were accompanied by others from the government like H.H. Asquith, the then Home Secretary. As soon as the bridge was made functional its bascules were lifted up to give way to a tugboat going over to the Parliament to help vessels in distress. Tower Bridge then replaced The Tower Subway and gradually the majority shifted to using it as it was the easiest and quickest way to cross the Thames even for pedestrians.

As the drastic events of world wars in the 20th century unrolled, we can find their traces in the history of Tower Bridge London. Between 1940 to 1942, the tower bridge had become an efficient connecting route towards the Port of London, thus even garnered the enemy's eye. During the second world war a few attacks on the Bridge were made to cause dysfunctionality, and to avoid any mishap, the managerial authorities at the Bridge installed a third engine. Later, the damages done to the bridge were repaired and its operationality was modernised; the third engine was then donated to the Forncett Industrial Steam Museum.

If you think that the credits to make the history of Tower bridge London memorable have been rightly acquired by its Neo-Gothic, strikingly beautiful Victorian architecture and its bascules, well you’re forgetting an important component then. This third important highlight of the bridge is the science and technology, fueling it, to make the functioning of the bridge efficient. Initially, the energy produced by steam was used to lift the bascules, it was stored in large size six accumulators to secure a power source for the functionality of the bridge. The accumulators in which energy was stored were connected to the driving engines which would lift the central span once energy would fuel them. Hydraulics are still the major energy source, though experiments with oil and electricity have been made as well since 1976.