Tower Bridge, the most famous and distintctive bridge in London, towers over the river Thames. It was completed in 1894 and is 880 feet long.
It is used by car and buses as well as by pedestrians. Before its construction, the city of London had grown substantially and cars and pedestrians could only use the one bridge-London bridge.
Although there were fewer cars than there are today, the traffic jams werw unbearable, so it was inevitable that another bridge would be built. Its designer was Sir Horace Jones and it was engineered by Sir Wolfe Barry.
However, when the bridge was completed and opened for traffic in 1894, the public did not like it at all. One magazine referred to it as "the most monstrous and preposterous architectural sham that we have ever known."The new bridge has two towers that rise 200 feel above the Thames. A pair of glass-covered walkways stretch between the two towers for pedestrians. Szeam engines raise and lower the bascules-movable roadways-inless than two minutes, to allow ships to pass.
However, public opinion has changed over the years, and today Tower Bridge belongs to the most beloved and most photographed landmarks both of Londoners and visitors from all over the world.
Tower Bridge, built of stell and masonry, is the only movable one of the 29 bridges witch have been built on the Thames. When it was opened to traffic, it was raised and lowered 1,000 times per year. Today, there are fewer ships on the Thames, so the bridge opens about 100 tines per year. Fifty years ago, a London bus had to "leap" from one bascule to the other when the bridge began to rise with the bus on it.
Luckily, no one was injured.