Tower Bridge

A few interesting facts about Tower Bridge, gleaned from the excellent Tower Bridge exhibition which we went to today...

* 432 men were employed to build it; only 10 died despite the fact that health & safety legislation didn't exist, or not in its current form anyway

* It took 8 years for the man behind the design, Horace Jones, to convince the committee making the decision, that a) the bridge was needed and b) his design would meet all the challenges that needed to be met. He died a year into its construction so never saw the end product.

* There was lots of opposition to the concept of having a bridge at that part of the Thames, particularly from merchants who felt it would be "the ruin of us all", cutting the Port of London in half and restricting their access to their wharves (the design in fact allowed for the famous 'lifting' of the bridge so that tall ships could still sail through).

* The bridge's bascules (the bits that raise) are still lifted around 1,000 times each year. By my reckoning that's about three times a day - but I've never seen it yet!

Here's a view from the Tower Bridge upper walkway and of one of the engines that powers the lifting.