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Tower Bridge, London

Tower Bridge is one of the most famous and visited bridges in London, England, United Kingdom.
Situated over the River Thames, the bridge attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists every year. It takes its name from the Tower of London, situated next to the bridge.
Tower Bridge was opened on 30 June 1894 by Edward, Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, and his wife, Alexandra of Denmark.
Tower Bridge is bascule, which is the most common type of movable bridges; they are drawbridges where bascules are risen open in the middle to provide clearance for boat traffic and then lowered to their initial position to secure a passage for road traffic. The bascules of the bridge are raised around 900 times a year. They were originally powered by steam engines.

The building of the Bridge started in 1886 and took eight years to complete. The base of the bridge is made of more than 70,000 tons of concrete to secure the support of the construction. 11,000 tons of steel were used for the towers and walkways.
The design of Tower Bridge was proposed from Horace Jones, the City Architect, and approved in 1884. Jones worked on the project until his death in 1887, when his chief engineer, Sir John Wolfe-Barry, took over. To him Tower Bridge owes its Victorian gothic style that makes it a distinctive landmark.
The high-level walkways between the towers earned a poor reputation as a gathering point for prostitutes and pickpockets and were closed in 1910. They are now reopened as part of an exhibition, Tower Bridge Experience.

Although river traffic is not so heavy nowadays, it is still more important than the road traffic. This nearly caused a diplomatic incident in 1996, when the motorcade of United States President Bill Clinton got stuck on Tower Bridge while the bascules were unexpectedly opened.


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