Tower Bridge is one of London's most iconic landmarks, a beautiful bridge that crosses
the River Thames beside the equally iconic Tower of London. We've seen it, passed across
and under it numerous times but never stopped to really take in its design and beauty or venture
inside and find out its history and how it all worked for that matter! Join us today as we
explore this fascinating feat of engineering and discover the wonders of Tower Bridge.
You can book tickets to visit the bridge on this website. It can be very busy so booking a time
slot in advance is a good idea. You'll enter the bridge at road level in the North Tower,
the one nearest the Tower of London. The Rivers Thames was a major transport and cargo waterway
and became one of the world's largest trade and industry ports during the 19th century.
The commercial business in the East End of London was booming, traders and the public demanded a
new river crossing downstream of London Bridge to ease the gridlock caused by the rapidly increasing
population. Those living upstream, west of Tower Bridge had 12 bridges to choose from,
those in the East End of London had none requiring them to traipse across the city to London Bridge,
something that could take hours. A special committee was set up and in 1876,
The Corporation of London held a competition to design a new foot
and vehicle bridge. The major requirement was to allow for tall ships to sail past.
Over 50 designs were submitted and a public consultation was held but none
was suitable. There was much controversy over the new bridge and its design so it wasn't until 1884,
eight years later that one was approved. A design for a bascule or seesaw bridge, submitted
by Sir Horace Jones, the city architect that he designed in collaboration with John Wolfe Barry.
As we begin our tour inside the north tower the exhibits explained the building of the bridge. On
the 21st of June 1886 Edward, Prince of Wales laid the foundation stone. Up to 848 men were employed
at any one time to work on its construction. It took eight years to complete at a cost of
over 1.1 million pounds in Victorian money, an enormous amount of money in the 19th century!
24 huge square steel cages were pushed into the riverbed,
brave divers dug out the clay and gravel in dangerous conditions to create a chamber in
which concrete could be laid to build the foundations for the two towers.
Over 11 tons of metalwork was produced in Glasgow at William Arrol's Steelworks and
shipped down to London. This was used to create the framework for the towers and the walkways.
Riveters required 14 million rivets of different sizes, men known as cooks heated them up in a
furnace till glowing red and ready to join and secure the structure. As the bridge grew in
size the furnaces remained on the ground, the red hot rivets were thrown up to a "catcher"
who skillfully caught them in a bucket of ash ready to be picked up with tongs by a riveter.
There were no health and safety requirements in those days.
The bridge was clad in Portland stone and Cornish granite giving it the lovely and pleasing
appearance we see today, appearing much older than it is something that Queen Victoria approved of as
it complemented the nearby Tower of London. This staircase taking us up to the pedestrian walkway
across the bridge was designed so that people could still cross when the bascules were raised.
Tower Bridge was officially opened at midday on the 30th of June 1894 by Edward,
Prince of Wales later to become King Edward VII. Huge crowds lined the Thames to catch
a glimpse of the first-ever lift at two minutes past 12 the bascules raised and
the ships started to sail through with a gun salute from the Tower of London.
Reaching the top of the north tower we can now walk across the bridge in the east walkway as
the Victorians did, enjoying the stunning views of east London and Canary Wharf from this vantage
point. The walkway was actually not a great success for the bridge no one could be bothered
to climb up all the steps and walk over during a lift, preferring to wait at road level. They were
dimly lit making them dangerous at night a place where pit pockets and prostitutes would lurk.
In 1910 they were closed and it would be 71 years before the public could again walk across when the
Bridge opened in 1982 as a tourist attraction. In 2014 a glass floor was introduced to enhance
the visitor experience on the bridge, you can now look right down on the busy road level and watch
the public scurrying across along with the large volumes of traffic entering or leaving the city.
Crossing over onto the west walkway we can look down on HMS Belfast moored in the old
pool of London, where the tall ships would dock and deliver cargo or take on fresh export goods.
Ahead of us is London Bridge pretty plain in
comparison to Tower Bridge which is often confused with London Bridge.
To our right is the thousand year old Tower of London another iconic
attraction you might want to visit after touring the bridge. We visited just after
the pandemic and had the place virtually to ourselves, a very rare situation. To
find out all the history of the tower watch our historic Tower of London video next.
The exhibition boards along the walkway also highlight some of the key moments in the life
of the bridge one extraordinary situation occurred in December 1952 when Albert Gunter
was driving his bus across the bridge with 20 passengers on board. He suddenly noticed that
the bridge was raising and it was too late to stop hitting the accelerator the bus jumped
the small gap beginning to form and safely landed on the North side. Gunter received a £10 reward,
asked how he would spend it he said a fiver for me and a fiver for the misses!
Since
1971 boats have needed to give 24-hour notice that they need to
pass and this happens around 800 times a year, prior to that someone was on
lookout duty 24 hours a day noting tall vessels that needed to pass.
As in 1894 when it opened today it is still free to request the raising of the bridge. If
you have a tall enough boat, you have the right to request it open for you. If you want to see
the bridge raise then check out this website which lists the dates and times of future book lifts.
Making our way down from the south tower we walk across the road bridge to the north side
and entrance to the second part of our tour where we can find out how the bridge is powered and the
people that keep it running like clockwork. As we cross we get a good view of the main structure,
now over 135 years old. It was originally chocolate brown in colour but in 1977 it
was painted red white and blue to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's silver jubilee. When the bridge was
first built it was powered by steam, this is one of the coal-fired boilers heating and boiling the
water in a chamber around it, creating steam to power the steam pumping engines in the next room.
The water had to be continually monitored and levels maintained using the green glass gauges.
Stokers shovelled 20 tons of coal per week to keep it running 24/7.
The first thing you notice when you enter the steam engine pumping room is the bright colour
of the machinery. Sir William Armstrong one of the world's most successful industrialist engineers
designed the engines and his family's crest were those colours. He painted his machinery with
this distinctive colour so that everyone could identify them as William Armstrong's machine.
The steam pump is moving in a demonstration mode much slower than it would have been when it was
needed to help raise and lower the bridge. The pistons operate very much like a steam train,
powering the water pump and pushing the water under pressure into the accumulators.
Here are two of the six accumulators used by the Victorians to hold the pressurized water
ready to be used. They are empty now so rest on the floor when full they would have been
high up in the air ready to release the water through pipes to the cog that was connected
to the bascules on either side of the bridge raising and lowering it in just 60 seconds.
More than 80 people were needed to maintain the engines and raise the bridge from coal stokers,
signalmen, oilers to gatemen and engineers to name but a few.
Since 1976 this has been done by hydroelectric power and it takes
just one person to raise the bridge known as the "Bridge Driver", of course, there are still
others supporting that role making around 20 people including the tourist guide workers.
This visit has been a fascinating insight into a bridge that we've
taken for granted in the past. The incredible engineering, the reasons why it was built,
those involved in its construction and continued running and of course,
how it all manages to work like clockwork have given us a renewed appreciation for
this wonderful and hugely important bridge in the heart of London. I hope it has for you as well?
Join us again on another video soon and don't forget our Tower of London video link at the end
to continue learning about iconic places to visit in London. Thanks for watching the MemorySeekers.