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 | London Tower Bridge Reviews | Tips 51 - 60 of 290 |  |
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The Tower Bridge is perhaps London's most easily recognizable landmark. It is also often mistakenly referred to as the London Bridge by foreigners. The London Bridge (or rather the new London Bridge, the original is now in Arizona) itself is actually the bridge just West of the Tower Bridge. It was constructed in the 2nd half of 19th century when traffic problems in the already large city were becoming overwhelming. The bridge had to be able to allow ships to pass, while hopefully preserving some sort of continuous passage between the banks. A few designs were submitted, but the one now familiar to us all ended up the winner. The bridge was built using a steel structure, with a pedestrian walkway up above the main roadway that allowed continuous passage, even when the bridge was open. The two stone towers of the bridge do not actually carry any structural load, but were still made to look the way they do to fit in with their surroundings, including the adjacent Tower of London. These days you can tour the bridge. You will go up an elevator to the top of a tower, where you get to see a short video about the history of the bridge, see a few models, including the competing designs, and get a nice view of London from the two pedestrian walkways linking the towers. Some nice photo ops from up there too. Once back down at street level, you can explore the engine room where the original bridge machinery is still preserved. The two halves of the roadway were originally raised using steam engines and hydraulics, but over time the mechanism was switched over to electric motors instead of steam. Leave a Comment Website: http://www.towerbridge.org.uk/
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