Tower Bridge - the gates of London and the main decoration of the city

Even those who have never been in England, recognize the Tower Bridge immediately. He is a peculiar symbol of Britain. Every year, near the bridge, thousands of tourists are photographed and watched the ships sailing under it. At night, it attracts attention with hundreds of burning lights that are reflected in the water.

Where is the Tower Bridge

The country of this magnificent structure is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It adorns the very capital of the kingdom - London. This drawbridge is located right in the center of the city above the River Thames.

In general, bridges are the sights of London: Tower Bridge, Waterloo, London, Millennium, Cannon Street Railway Bridge and Westminster (next to Big Ben). But still the most important, which is the symbol of the city, is Tower Tower. He is the same business card of London as the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Statue of Liberty in New York. The image of this bridge is so closely connected with the capital of Britain that it seems even banal. But nevertheless, its majesty and severity of forms again and again shake the imagination of tourists.

Where did this name come from?

The history of the Tower Bridge is closely intertwined with the London Tower located next to it - the place where the prisoners were kept. Earlier, until 1872, in the center of the city there was only one London Bridge that spanned the Thames. The London authorities considered that it was clearly not enough for city needs. Therefore, in the year, the parliament decided to build a new structure. By the way, the Commandant of the Tower was against construction, but the parliament insisted on its own. It was decided that the future bridge in its architecture should effectively blend in with the prison. That's why such austerity of the Tower Bridge.

He also received his name from the Tower of London. The north end of the bridge was located just near the corner of the prison. And the road, which is the continuation of the bridge, runs parallel to the wall of the Tower. So the first people who walked through this bridge were not London aristocrats, but prison prisoners.

The creator of the bridge

In the winter of 1876, the authorities of London announced a competition for the best bridge project for the city. The following requirements were set for the project:

• The bridge should be high, so that ships can pass under it;
• The structure was to be strong and wide, so as to ensure the constant movement of wagons and people.

Fifty interesting projects were proposed. Most of them offered high bridges with span structures. But all projects had two common drawbacks: between the surface of the water and the bridge during the tide there was too little distance for the ships to be able to pass, and the ascent to it was too steep for the horses that were pulling the cart. The architects offered variants with lifting hydraulic lifts for people and carriages, with sliding decks and ring parts.

But the most realistic of the proposed options was recognized as the project of the chief architect of London - Sir Horace Jones. He proposed a drawing of the lifting-opening bridge.

Unusual project

By the time the Tower Bridge was being built, drawbridges had long been no miracle. They were widely used in St. Petersburg, the Netherlands and other countries. But the peculiarity of the Tower Bridge was its complex technical system. Nowhere in the world so large was not applied hydraulics. In St. Petersburg, at that time, the labor of workers was used to divorce the bridge, which was later replaced by the work of water turbines. At the request of the municipality, the bridge was designed in the Gothic style. Under it calmly could pass even the most huge sea vessels.

A feature of the Tower Bridge was the counterweight, with which the structure was raised and moved apart. In the construction of this facility, a combination of masonry with steel structures was planned.

However, despite the obvious merits of the idea, the authorities delayed the decision to approve it. Then Jones drew the famous engineer John Wolfe Barry to the project, and together they perfected it. So, according to a new sketch, the Tower Bridge should have the upper footpaths. And the project was approved.

The beginning of construction and the first changes

In order to translate the project into reality, the government allocated a huge amount for that time - 585 000 £. Developers overnight turned into very rich people.

The beginning of construction was laid in 1886. And at first everything went according to plan. But in the spring of 1887, even before they began laying the foundation of the future bridge, the head of the project, Jones, suddenly died. This was a great blow to his companion, Engineer Barry, and the building was frozen for a while.

Then Barry still headed the project and took to his assistants the architect J. Stevenson. The latter had a great passion for the Gothic art of the Victorian era, which had a marked effect on the project. With the advent of Stevenson, the Tower Bridge has undergone a number of stylistic changes. The steel forms of the bridge were exposed, for it was in the spirit of the times. And also there were two famous towers connected by passages for pedestrians at a height of 42 meters above the river.

The opening of the bridge and the principle of its operation

The Tower of London began to build in 1886 and was completed 8 years later. Its opening was a solemn event, which took place in June 1894. The ceremony was attended by the Prince of Wales and his wife Alexander.

The work of the bridge was completely focused on the steam engines that rotated the huge pumps. These facilities created high pressure in the system of accumulators. Which, in turn, powered the motors that rotated the crankshafts. The torque from the shafts was transferred to the gears, which made the gear sectors move. And the sectors were responsible for breeding the wings of the bridge. The raised parts of the bridge were very massive, and the impression was that the gears had a huge load. However, this is not the case: heavier counterweights were attached to the wings of the bridge, which provided tremendous assistance to the hydraulic motors.

In order to dilute the wings, a large amount of energy was required. And then everything was foreseen. The construction mechanism included six huge accumulators, in which water was under strong pressure. It came to the engines responsible for the work of the bridge's swinging parts. Under the action of water, all kinds of mechanisms came into motion, and a huge axis with a diameter of half a meter began to rotate, lifting the canvas. The entire process of building the bridge took only one minute!

Bridge today

Today the Tower Bridge works entirely on electricity. However, as before, when it comes into motion, everyone around freezes and looks enthusiastically at the wings of the bridge rising in the air. Then the attention of others turns to the river. And whether it's a pleasure boat or a tugboat, everyone watches with interest how it will pass under the bridge.

The most curious is to climb one of the towers, where the museum is located, dedicated to the Tower Bridge. There you can learn a lot of interesting things about its history, see construction photos, layouts and plans. Well, then you can go up to the observation deck to see the unusual, exciting and stunning panorama of the city opening from there.

So, if you are in London, be sure to visit the Tower Bridge.

Interesting Facts

The old London Bridge was purchased in 1968 by Robert McCullough, a businessman from the United States. The structure was dismantled and transported to the States. According to the legend, the businessman thought that the old London bridge is the Tower Bridge, a symbol of the mysterious Albion. However, McCullough himself publicly denies that this was actually the case.

The Tower Bridge is a real work of art, on which talented architects worked. And also this is the greatest attraction not only of London, but of the whole of Great Britain as a whole.