TOWER BRIDGE, SOUTHBANK LONDON, WALK AROUND TOWER BRIDGE

TOWER BRIDGE, SOUTHBANK LONDON, WALK AROUND TOWER BRIDGE. Tower Bridge was built between 1886 and 1894. The bridge crosses the River Thames close to the Tower of London and has become a world-famous symbol of London. As a result, it is sometimes confused with London Bridge, about half a mile (0.8 km) upstream. Tower Bridge is one of five London bridges owned and maintained by the Bridge House Estates, a charitable trust overseen by the City of London Corporation. It is the only one of the trust's bridges not to connect the City of London directly to the Southwark bank, as its northern landfall is in Tower Hamlets.

The bridge consists of two bridge towers tied together at the upper level by two horizontal walkways, designed to withstand the horizontal tension forces imposed by the suspended sections of the bridge on the landward sides of the towers. The vertical components of the forces in the suspended sections and the vertical reactions of the two walkways are carried by the two robust towers. The bascule pivots and operating machinery are housed in the base of each tower.

The bridge deck is freely accessible to both vehicles and pedestrians, whereas the bridge's twin towers, high-level walkways and Victorian engine rooms form part of the Tower Bridge Exhibition, for which an admission charge is made. The nearest London Underground tube stations are Tower Hill on the Circle and District lines, London Bridge on the Jubilee and Northern lines and Bermondsey on the Jubilee line, and the nearest Docklands Light Railway station is Tower Gateway.[1] The nearest National Rail stations are at Fenchurch Street and London Bridge.

Construction started in 1886 and took eight years with five major contractors – Sir John Jackson (foundations), Baron Armstrong (hydraulics), William Webster, Sir H.H. Bartlett, and Sir William Arrol & Co.[7] – and employed 432 construction workers. E W Crutwell was the resident engineer for the construction.[8] The first stone was laid by Albert, Prince of Wales.[5]

Two massive piers, containing over 70,000 long tons (78,400 short tons; 71,123 t) of concrete, were sunk into the riverbed to support the construction.[9] More than 11,000 long tons (12,320 short tons; 11,177 t) of steel were used in the framework for the towers and walkways, which were then clad in Cornish granite and Portland stone, to protect the underlying steelwork.[10]

Jones died in 1887 and George D. Stevenson took over the project.[11] Stevenson replaced Jones's original brick façade with the more ornate Victorian Gothic style, which makes the bridge a distinctive landmark, and was intended to harmonise the bridge with the nearby Tower of London.[11][8] The total cost of construction was £1,184,000[8] (equivalent to £136 million in 2019)

The bridge is 800 feet (240 m) in length with two towers each 213 feet (65 m) high, built on piers.[38] The central span of 200 feet (61 m) between the towers is split into two equal bascules or leaves, which can be raised to an angle of 86 degrees to allow river traffic to pass.[39] The bascules, weighing over 1,000 tons each, are counterbalanced to minimise the force required and allow raising in five minutes.[40]

The two side-spans are suspension bridges, each 270 feet (82 m) long, with the suspension rods anchored both at the abutments and through rods contained within the bridge's upper walkways. The pedestrian walkways are 143 feet (44 m) above the river at high tide, and accessed by lifts.[5][8]

One of the chimneys on the bridge, which can be mistaken for a lamp post, connects up to an old fireplace in a guardroom of the Tower of London. It is long-disused
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Дата на публикация: 11 март, 2021
Категория: Друго