London, UK::::::: Tower Bridge is the first bridge starting from the Thames Estuary in London, UK (15 bridges have been built on the Thames River). It is also a symbol of London, with " "The Main Gate of London".
Introduction
Tower Bridge is a suspension bridge. It was originally a wooden bridge and later changed to a stone bridge.
Exterior of Tower Bridge
Now it is a cement structure bridge with 6 lanes. The two bridge foundations in the river are 7.6 meters high and 76 meters apart. There are two towering square main towers built on the bridge foundations. They are square five-story towers with granite and steel structures, 43.455 meters high. The two main towers are built with white marble. The roof and five small spiers look like two crowns from a distance. The span between the two towers is more than 60 meters, and the tower base and both sides of the bank are connected by a steel cable suspension bridge. The bridge is divided into upper and lower floors. The upper floor (the bridge deck is about 42 meters above the high tide level) is a wide suspended walkway with glass windows on both sides. Pedestrians passing through the bridge can enjoy the beautiful scenery on both sides of the Thames River; The lower level is accessible to vehicles. When a ship of 10,000 tons passes on the Thames River, the machine in the main tower is started, and the bridge body slowly separates and folds upward. After the ship passes, the bridge body slowly falls down, allowing vehicle traffic to resume. The two movable bridge decks each weigh 1,000 tons. Looking at Tower Bridge from a distance, the twin towers are so tall and magnificent. There are stairs up and down the bridge tower, which houses museums, exhibition halls, shops, bars, etc. Climbing the tower and looking into the distance, you can enjoy the ten-mile scenery upstream and downstream of the Thames River. If you encounter the mist-locked bridge, the scenery will be even more unique. The fog-locked Tower Bridge is one of the famous sights in London.
From the bridge or the riverside, you can see the British warship "Belfast" parked on the river not far away. This is the most complete British warship preserved since World War II.
Design
The design of London's Tower Bridge is quite reasonable and is well-known in the world's bridge construction industry
. There are two tall towers built of granite and steel on both sides of the strait, about 60 meters high and divided into upper and lower floors. The upper level supports the towers on both sides of the bank, and the lower deck allows pedestrians and vehicles to pass through. If a giant ship comes honking its whistle, the lower bridge deck can automatically tilt to both sides. At this time, pedestrians can change their route and pass through the upper deck. There are shops and bars inside the bridge. Even on rainy and snowy days, pedestrians can shop, chat or lean on the railings to overlook the scenery on both sides of the strait.
From the outside, the two ends of Tower Bridge are Victorian masonry towers, but in fact the structure of the tower body is mainly made of steel. It contains hydraulic machinery used to open and close bridges each weighing 1,000 tons. Since the Tower Bridge was built, its mechanical functions have been normal and there has never been a failure. After the giant ship blows its whistle in greeting, it only takes one minute for the lifting machinery to raise the bridge deck.
The Tower Bridge was designed to meet the needs of both shipping and road traffic. Tower Bridge Museum staff explained that at that time, all bridges were built to the west of Tower Bridge. With the development of trade in the mid-Victorian period, London began to expand eastward, and it was considered to build another bridge to ease traffic, but the dock owner objected, thinking that the bridge would To prevent their ships from passing through, they discussed for many years and finally built the Tower Bridge. When it opens the bridge deck, it can let large ships pass, and the horizontal bridge deck is conducive to the walking of horse-drawn carriages. Each half of the bridge deck that can be flipped weighs more than 1,000 tons. Since Tower Bridge was fully put into use in 1895, the bridge deck has been opened more than 6,000 times a day, an average of ten times a week. Tower Bridge requires 25 people to operate and maintain it. Chief Patterson said it took five people to open the bridge deck, with one person in the control room and four others outside monitoring the road conditions.
The two ends of the Tower Bridge are connected by four stone towers. The two main towers are 35 meters high, square and thick, with a simple style. From a distance, they look like two crowns, majestic and majestic.
Edit this tour
Visitors can walk on Tower Bridge for free.
To visit Tower Bridge, you can take the elevator from the north Tower Bridge to view the structural engineering of the bridge, and then walk across the Thames River from the high-altitude channel of the bridge to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the Thames River and both sides. There is an exhibition room in the tower where you can learn about the history and working conditions of the bridge.
On Westminster Bridge (behind the Houses of Parliament), there is a Thames River tour (Parliament House-Tower Bridge) co-organized by the cruise company every day. The journey takes nearly one hour and the boat fee is about 8 pounds. There is a fee to visit Tower Bridge Museum and HMS Belfast, and they are not cheap.
Edit this paragraph London Bridge
"London Bridge is going to fall, it is going to fall. London Bridge is going to fall, madam!"
Indeed, it's like As the nursery rhyme goes, London Bridge not only collapsed in history, but collapsed many times. It is rare that a bridge like London Bridge remains famous despite its repeated ups and downs.
London Bridge: In the past, this rock was a promontory that jutted out from the sea and connected the land. Due to the erosion of the waves, two round holes were formed, which happened to be a double arch, so it was named "London Bridge". bridge". In the evening of January 15, 1990, the circular hole connected to the land suddenly collapsed and separated from the mainland to form the broken bridge we see today. The power of nature is huge, and the landscapes created by nature are magical in a way that cannot be compared to artificial ones!
In other words, London Bridge is a product of nature, and Tower Bridge is a man-made masterpiece.
Building bridges
Around 50 AD, the Romans, who were famous for their engineering skills in later generations,
built bridges with wood on the Thames River. This is the original London Bridge. After the Romans left, London Bridge gradually became dilapidated. However, it may have been repaired or rebuilt at a certain period, but the time cannot be verified. In 1014, King Ethelred II of England ordered the burning of London Bridge in order to split the invading Danish army into two. This incident is said to have given rise to the famous nursery rhyme "London Bridge is Falling Down". The burned London Bridge was rebuilt, but the rebuilt London Bridge was destroyed by a storm in 1091. After being rebuilt again, London Bridge was destroyed again in 1136, this time by fire. So starting in 1176, people began to use stone to build London Bridge, and it was finally completed in 1209. The construction of the new London Bridge took 33 years, during which it is said that 150 workers died. The newly built London Bridge is perhaps the strangest bridge built in the Middle Ages. It is completely asymmetrical and none of the 19 arches are exactly the same. In addition to the 19 bridge arches, there is also a suspension bridge. Houses and shops were soon built on the bridge, and a small church was even built in the middle of the bridge. There is another gate tower at the south end of the bridge. The arches of the bridge were very narrow and the water flow was fast, so only the brave or reckless people passed under the arches, and many people died as a result.
Architecture on the Bridge
The gatehouse at the south end became London's most notorious attraction:
Traitors were beheaded, impaled on stakes, and Coated with asphalt to prevent corrosion. In 1305, the head of the famous Scottish rebel leader William Wallace was nailed to the door, starting a 355-year tradition. Other notable beheadings include Jack Cade in 1450, Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher in 1535, and Thomas Cromwell in 1540. In 1598, a German tourist who visited London once counted the heads on the bridge. There were as many as 30 people on the bridge. This tradition was finally abolished in 1660 after the Restoration of Charles II. The construction of London Bridge not only poses a fire hazard but also increases the load-bearing burden on the bridge, so it is not surprising that there have been several disasters in history. In 1212 or 1213, a fire broke out from both ends of the bridge at the same time, trapping many people in the middle, and it is said that 3,000 people died. A fire in 1633 destroyed half of the bridge. Between 1758 and 1762, the houses on the bridge and the two middle arches were demolished to widen the span and improve navigation capacity.
Reconstruction
By the beginning of the 19th century, after more than 600 years of ups and downs
London Bridge was overwhelmed and obviously needed to be rebuilt. In 1799, a competition began to design a new bridge to replace the old one, during which engineer Thomas Telford designed a single-arch iron arch bridge with a span of 600 feet.
Although the revolutionary design was widely praised, it was never realized due to doubts about its feasibility and the land required for its construction.
In the end, a graceful five-arch stone bridge stood 100 feet west of the original bridge site. The New London Bridge was designed by engineer John Rennie and supervised by his son (named after his father), which took seven years (1824 to 1831). The bridge is 928 feet long and 49 feet wide and is made of granite. Between 1902 and 1904, the bridge was widened to alleviate London's old traffic congestion problem. Unfortunately, the widened bridge became unbearable for its foundations, and it was later discovered that London Bridge was sinking at a rate of 1/8 inch per year.
Purchase London Bridge
In 1968, the London Bridge designed and built by Rennie and Sons was purchased for
Tower Bridge
$2.46 million Sold to American entrepreneur Robert P. McCullough for a price of . McCullough is said to have made a mistake when he purchased London Bridge: He mistakenly thought he was buying Tower Bridge, another famous bridge in London that is often confused with London Bridge. The London Bridge was dismantled and transported back to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, USA. It was finally restored and opened to the public on October 10, 1971. Today, London Bridge in the desert is the centerpiece of a man-made British theme park and the second-largest tourist attraction in the United States after the Grand Canyon. But is the "London Bridge" still a London Bridge if it leaves London and the Thames River?
London Bridge today
The London Bridge that spans the Thames today was built between 1967 and 1972, partly funded by the sale of London Bridge to Rennie and Son. income. The new bridge is a rather boring cement bridge with three spans. It may be sturdier and more practical, but otherwise it's incomparable to the old London Bridge.
For 2000 years, London Bridge has not only witnessed the history of mankind, but its own history is the history of the development of human civilization. From wooden bridges to stone bridges and then to concrete bridges, London Bridge has risen and fallen repeatedly. The only things that remain unchanged are the Thames water under the bridge and its own name. When will London Bridge, which now spans the Thames, end its mission? Will McCullough still be there to buy it?
A London Bridge was shipped to the United States
I read an article today that said that the London Bridge was bought to the United States because it was too old to bear the increasing traffic. I felt a little surprised for a moment. Doesn’t London Bridge lie nicely on the Thames? After reading it carefully, I discovered that this bridge is not the other bridge. This bridge is the London Bridge built in 1831, and the London Bridge we usually call is the Tower Bridge built in 1886 (there are two towers on the top, and the ground floor can Raise larger ships to pass). The London Bridge was sold to an American businessman, Mc Culloch, by the British government in 1962 for $2.46 million (at the time, everyone thought the businessman was stupid). He cut the bridge and shipped it to California, USA, and then trucked it to Lake Havasu, Arizona. This was originally a U.S. Air Force base during World War II, so it must have been very desolate. In order to place the bridge, Mc Culloch dug out an artificial river. Then the bridge was built for people to visit, and now the city has many commercial institutions, newspapers and schools.
London Bridge was purchased by McCollough Oil Company in 1968 for $2,460,000. The bridge was broken down into 10,000 stone pieces and shipped to Lake Havasso City, Arizona. The new London Bridge was rebuilt over a tributary of Lake Havasso, and the project was completed in 1973.
London Bridge has been in London for hundreds of years, but now it is in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, USA. Will the bridge be moved? Of course it wouldn't, but it had indeed been moved from England to the United States, not missing a stone or a brick, and it was as intact as ever.
History of London Bridge
The first bridge over the River Thames in London was built in AD 43. It was a pontoon bridge and was soon replaced by the first bridge called London Bridge. . In 984 AD this bridge was replaced by the New London Bridge.
Its lifespan was not very long, and it was destroyed again in 1074. After that, the first stone London Bridge was built in 1176, which took 33 years. However, it was used for 600 years until 1824, when another London Bridge replaced it. The bridge was completed by two generations of John Ranney and his son, with the father designing and his son building it. His father is from Scotland and graduated from the University of Edinburgh. From 1791, he was one of the greatest civil engineers of his era. He built many canals, ports and bridges, the most famous of which was Waterloo Bridge in 1817.
The construction of the New London Bridge required 800 migrant workers and took 7 years. It was one of the most important buildings of that period and reflected the highest bridge-building technology in Britain at that time. The new bridge maintains two points of the original bridge: first, the material is still made of stone, and second, the name of the bridge is still London Bridge, because it has lasted for 750 years.
London Bridge was auctioned
The bridge was completed on August 1, 1831. As the medieval monuments gave way, it marked the beginning of new bridge-building technology. On this day, the Mayor of London led the royal family across the bridge. A grand banquet was held on the New Bridge, and the king and queen came in person. As the main entrance to the city of London, the new London Bridge had its glorious moments. Foreign dignitaries and successive monarchs had to cross this bridge when they returned from the European continent. But its most important function is to allow an incalculable number of vehicles and pedestrians to pass. Someone once calculated that there are 15,968 pedestrians on London Bridge from 8:30 to 9:30 every morning. However, the London Bridge in the 20s of the last century can no longer meet the needs of the times. Not only is the bridge deck capacity insufficient, but the bridge deck capacity is insufficient. The surface was too cautious and the bridge began to sink slowly. As a result, various suggestions for widening the bridge deck were constantly put forward and rejected. Finally, it was decided to rebuild a new London Bridge. In 1967, the bridge built by John Ranney decided to be sold. In order to pay attention to it, the relevant British departments printed very beautiful bidding brochures and sent them to British embassies and consulates around the world. Soon, foreign countries responded.
On April 18, 1968, London, New York, and Phoenix announced at the same time that London Bridge was sold to the McGulloch Oil Company of Los Angeles, USA, for US$2.46 million. In terms of price, it may not be the highest bid, but when the London City Company delegation visited Lake Havasu City, Arizona, USA, and saw the plan to build overseas Chinese here, they believed that this bid was the best bid. appropriate. As soon as the news broke, newspapers around the world carried the news on their front pages. McGulloch was very pleased. He said that London Bridge would be rebuilt according to the original drawings of Suranland architect John Ranney in a form familiar to Londoners and world tourists.
After all, London Bridge belongs to Britain. It shows British civilization and its sale affects Londoners. As soon as the bridge stone was demolished, various letters of reaction came like a snowflake to complain to the newspaper. Some people complain about why London Bridge was lost to the United States. They should consider that we are exporting our prosperity. There was also this reaction: "We did the right thing, we sold Americans outdated and useless things. Such incidents show our aristocratic superiority, because after all, in the UK, no one buys the things that the United States throws away, such as New York's quite old Skyscrapers." Some people lamented that if we don't do anything now, Americans will buy our Buckingham Palace. Two teenage children said, "Selling London Bridge will affect our children."
Rebuilding London Bridge
Destroying London Bridge is very difficult and dangerous The mortar from 130 years ago is still intact. Be especially careful to avoid accidents and do not drop the stones into the river. Each stone on the bridge weighs one ton, and the largest one weighs 5 tons. ***Ten thousand Tons of exterior wall stone were dismantled and stacked at the docks, ready to be shipped to California, USA, from where they were trucked to Lake Havasu City. The entire bridge demolition process took 3 years, while a new concrete London Bridge was erected at the same location without interruption to traffic.
Lake Havasu City is located in Arizona, USA. It was built as planned in the desolate desert in 1964. The current population is more than 20,000, and it is developing rapidly, with plans to grow to 75,000 people. The city was designed by Wood, who also helped design Disneyland.
The first stone was shipped to Lake Havasu City on July 9, 1968. The London Bridge over Lake Havasu was built as the stone was being transported. The construction groundbreaking ceremony was held on September 23, 1968. The ceremony was grand and extraordinary. The Mayor of London and several important officials made a special trip to attend. Before the ceremony, the Governor of Arizona held a formal state banquet in Phoenix, the state capital. The governor and the mayor of London personally laid the first stone for the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City. Thousands of people attended such an important event. The mayor said with deep emotion, "I can't think of any other What better way to connect our two countries than to have London Bridge move from one of the oldest cities in the world to one of the newest in the world?
The reconstruction of London Bridge took more than three years, cost 7 million US dollars, and was completed in the autumn of 1971. The 643rd Mayor of London and the Governor of Arizona attended the completion ceremony and officially announced the opening. Today, more and more visitors come to see London Bridge, a symbol of Britain's past, and the new international villages that have sprung up around it.
Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge of London is a bridge across the Thames River in London, England. It got its name because it is near the Tower of London. It is sometimes mistakenly called London Bridge, but the real London Bridge is actually located upstream of it.
Nearby buildings
Famous tourist spots near Tower Bridge include the Tower of London, St. Catherine's Wharf and Shad Thames Street.
Design
In the second half of the 19th century, with the economic development of London, there was an increasingly urgent need for a bridge across the Thames in the east of the city. But the bridge could not be a traditional bridge, because the pier at that time was located between London Bridge and the Tower of London. If the new bridge was too low, ships would not be able to reach the pier. A pedestrian tunnel under the Thames was opened in 1870, but it still could not replace the need for a new bridge.
In 1876 a special committee was formed to discuss a solution to the river-crossing problem. It started a design competition and received 50 different proposals in one day. Discussions dragged on and led to much heated debate, but in 1884 the committee decided to adopt Horace Jones's plan.
Jones' design is a 244-meter-long swing bridge with two towers, each 65 meters high. The middle part of the bridge is 61 meters long and divided into two leaves, each of which can be raised to 83 degrees to allow river traffic to pass. The two bridge sections each weigh thousands of tons. Their axes are located at their center of gravity to reduce the force required to lift them. They can rise in an "eight" shape within one minute. Initially the lift was hydraulic, for which it had six reservoirs to generate high-pressure water. A steam engine pumps water from a reservoir into a hydraulic unit. Today the bridge is raised and lowered using electric motors, but the steam engine mechanism from the past is still available for tours.
Construction
The construction of Tower Bridge in London began in 1886. It took eight years to build, with five major construction companies and 432 construction workers participating. The two sturdy bridge piers used a total of 70,000 tons of cement, and the bridge tower and bridge body used 11,000 tons of steel. The steel skeleton of the bridge tower and bridge body is laid with granite and Portland stone to protect the skeleton and increase the appearance.
Jones died in 1887 and his chief engineer, Sir John Wolfe-Barry, became the engineering leader. Wolfe-Barry changed Jones's original medieval surface decoration and used more ornamental Victorian neo-Gothic decoration.
In 1894, the Tower Bridge in London was opened to traffic. The then British Crown Prince, later Edward VII, and his wife attended the opening ceremony.
Tower Bridge Today
There is a high pedestrian path between the two towers of Tower Bridge. This path later gained a very bad reputation because there Many prostitutes and thieves gathered there, so it was closed in 1910. Today it has been reopened for visitors to enjoy. There is a museum inside the bridge tower, which displays images of the bridge, steam engines used in the past, etc.
Visitors can also book a "behind the scenes" tour where they can visit the bridge's command center. Today the bridge's two decks are raised and lowered approximately 500 times a year.
Although there is much less water traffic today than in the past, water traffic still has priority over road traffic. This rule almost led to a diplomatic incident in 1997 when then-President Bill Clinton's car had to wait in front of the Tower Bridge in London when it unexpectedly opened. [2]