History of Tower Bridge - London

Tower Bridge is found on the River Thames in London, England, beside the Tower of London.

This Victorian bridge was designed by Wolfe Barry and Horace Jones, and built in 1894.

The middle of the bridge can be raised to permit ships to pass. It used to be raised 50 times a day, but now it is only raised 4 or 5 times a week.

The low banks on both sides of the river caused difficulty in building a bridge tall enough to allow ships to pass. The answer was to build a Bascule bridge. A bascule bridge is a drawbridge that works on a pivot and has a heavy weight at one end to balance the length of the bridge. If you would like more information on how a bascule bridge works, and specifically about how this relates to the Tower Bridge, see Geoffry Hartwell's website. If you go to visit Tower Bridge, you can go inside the tower and see how it operates.

The bridge is 60 m long, and the towers are 43 m high. You can walk up to the top of the tower where there is a magnificent view of the city of London.

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About the Author: Teresa McEachern founded Lingo T-shirts: t-shirts that talk for you about your passion for sports, hobbies, family, holidays or wildlife.

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