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London's Thames Bridges.

The River Thames.

The River Thames is Great Britain's second longest river. It stretches for 215 miles from its source in the Cotswold Hills to the open sea near Southend in Essex. For most of its length it is traversed by bridges both small and large, which carry motorised transport, walkers and cyclists over the Thames.

About 90 kilometres from the sea, above London, the river begins to show the tide caused by the North Sea. It is said that London was made capital of Roman Britain at the spot where the tides reached in 43 AD, but different things have pushed this spot farther up the river in the over 2000 years since then. At London, the water is slightly salty with sea salt.

 

History.

Like the Celts who lived in the area, the Romans called the river Thamesis. The Thames was an important way to go between London and Westminster in the 16th and 17th centuries.

By the 18th century, the Thames was one of the world's busiest waterways, as London became the centre of the very big British Empire.

The coming of rail transport and road transport, and the decline of the Empire in the years following 1914, have made the river less important than it was. London itself is no longer used much as a port, and the "Port of London" has moved down the river to Tilbury. The Thames has been greatly cleaned up, and life has returned to its dead waters.

In the early 1980s, the Thames Barrier was opened to control flooding. It is used many times a year to stop water damage to London's low lying areas up the river.

 

London's Thames Bridges.

Lambeth Bridge (1932). 776 feet long, 60 feet wide. The five arches of the bridge, supported by granite-faced riverpiers, are faced with flat steel plating to disguise the steel skeleton that lies behind. The red colour scheme is intended to reflect the red furnishings of the nearby House of Lords. Pineapple obelisks stand at the approaches. Architect: Reginald Blomfield.

London Bridge (1973). Replaced John Rennie’s London Bridge of 1831, which itself replaced the inhabited Old London Bridge of 1209. 860 feet long, 104 feet wide. The only decorative features are the granite obelisks on the river-piers and the polishedgranite facing of the parapet walls. Architect: Lord Holford.

Millennium Bridge (2002). 325 metres long, 4 metres wide. The flat steel suspension bridge carries pedestrians over the river between Tate Modern and St Paul’s Cathedral. Also known as the ‘Wobbly Bridge’ because of the swaying that occurred at its official opening in 2000. The bridge was closed while the problem was solved using a system of dampers.
Architect: Foster and Partners. Engineer: Ove Arup & Partners.

Tower Bridge (1894).380 feer long, 60 feet wide. Central drawbridge with two bascules of 1,100 tons each, originally raised by steam-driven hydraulic power, today by electricity. Two 300-foot steel towers clad in granite and Portland stone support the bascules as well as a 200-foot-high walkway which is cantilevered out from the towers. Suspension chains support the road spans from the riverbanks to the two towers. Architect: Horace Jones.



Vauxhall Bridge (1906). Replaced James Walker’s bridge of 1816, which was the first iron bridge to be built over the Thames in London. 759 feet long, 80 feet wide. The appearance of the structure of five steel arches is enlivened by the heroic-sized statues which stand in front of each of the river-piers. Architect: W.E. Riley.

Westminster Bridge (1862). Replaced Labelye’s beautiful but unsafe stone bridge of 1750.
748 feet long, 85 feet wide. Seven elliptical cast- and wrought-iron arches supported by granite piers cross the river between the former County Hall and the Houses of Parliament. Gothic shields in the spandrels and ornamental shields emblazoned with the arms of England and Westminster provide decoration appropriate to the site. Architect: Charles Barry.


Date: 2015-12-11; view: 846


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