While in London back in June we just had to take a trip to see Tower Bridge. Its one of the most famous landmarks in London !
Built right at the end of the 19th century (1886 to 1894), its an absolutely beautiful example of how the Victorian's did things. It was built to last, but was not just functional, it was also important to them that it looked fantastic.
Its quite spectacular, with the towers looking very splendid, especially considering its a bridge.
It is both a suspension bridge and also a drawbridge (bascule bridge) - the centre portion between the two towers can be raised to let larger river traffic up and down the Thames.
Above you can see the suspension part on the south side of the bridge, with each suspension being 82m in length.
The bridge gets a heck of a lot of tourists, so it was very busy when we visited, and its also quite close to a number of other attractions including the Tower of London. In the pic above you can see that it is also quite close to the Shard (large glass tower on the right) - one of London's more recent landmark additions.
Its also close to the City of London. You can get quite a nice view of the sky scrappers from the bridge.
And looking from the south bank (above), you can also see Canary Wharf in the background.
There are two walkways spaces high above the central drawbridge part, which you can see in the pic above. These are used for exhibitions, and also featured in the recent Spiderman film, Far From Home. Luckily Spiderman won, defeating Mysterio, hence saving the Bridge, London and the World ! Hurray for Spiderman !
The design is just stunning, and the ironwork really does fit well in with the overall design - and I love the colours they have selected. The architect was Horace Jones, and I think he did a pretty good job !
And the bridge is also still used for traffic - so its pretty much functioning to full capacity - quite a busy landmark - lots of tourists, traffic, letting boats pass up and down, exhibitions and super hero battles - how does it keep up ?!
And its also large enough to take the famous red London double decker buses !
Well it certainly is an awesome structure, and probably one of the prettiest bridges in the world. Its so worth the visit if you are ever in London - you wont be disappointed !
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