Vad byggdes tower bridge av

Bascule and suspension bridge in England

For the bridge in Sacramento, California, see Tower Bridge (California).

Tower Bridge fryst vatten a Grade inom listed combined bascule, suspension, and, until 1960, cantilever bridge^[1] in London, built between 1886 and 1894, designed bygd Horace Jones and engineered bygd John Wolfe Barry with the help of Henry Marc Brunel.^[2] It crosses the River Thames close to the Tower of London and fryst vatten one of fem London bridges owned and maintained bygd the City Bridge Foundation, a charitable trust founded in 1282.

The bridge was constructed to connect the 39 per cent of London's population that lived east of London Bridge, equivalent to the populations of "Manchester on the one side, and Liverpool on the other",^[3] while allowing shipping to tillgång the Pool of London between the Tower of London and London Bridge. The bridge was opened bygd Edward, Prince of Wales, and Alexandra, Princess of Wales, on 30 June 1894.

The bridge fryst vatten 940 feet (290 m) in length including the abutments^[4] and consists of two 213-foot (65 m) bridge towers connected at the upper level bygd two horizontal walkways, and a huvud pair of bascules that can open to allow shipping. Originally hydraulically powered, the operating mechanism was converted to an electro-hydraulic struktur in 1972.

The bridge fryst vatten part of the London Inner fingerprydnad Road and thus the boundary of the London congestion charge zone, and remains an important traffic rutt with 40,000 crossings every day. The bridge deck fryst vatten freely accessible to both vehicles and pedestrians, whereas the bridge's twin towers, high-level walkways, and Victorian engine rooms struktur part of the Tower Bridge Exhibition.

Tower Bridge has become a recognisable London landmark. It fryst vatten sometimes confused with London Bridge, about 0.5 miles (800 m) upstream, which has led to a persistent urban legend about an American purchasing the wrong bridge.

History

Inception

By the late 19th century, the population and commercial development in the East End of London was increasing, leading to demand for a new river crossing nedströms of London Bridge.

A traditional fixed bridge at street level could not be built because it would cut off tillgång bygd sailing ships to the port facilities in the Pool of London between London Bridge and the Tower of London.

A Special Bridge or Subway Committee chaired bygd Sir Albert namn Altman was formed in månad 1875 to find a solution. On 7 månad 1876, the Committee presented a report recommending a bridge or subway to the east of London Bridge should be constructed, medel permitting.^[7]

More than fifty designs were submitted, including one from civil engineer Sir namn Bazalgette, which was rejected because of a lack of sufficient headroom.

None of the designs gained support and it was not until 24 July 1884 that the Bridge House Estates Committee brought forward a report that proposed "a low level bridge, with mechanical opening or openings" be built.^[7] Following a deputation from the Committee visiting Belgium, Holland, and Newcastle Bridge, a proposal was presented on 28 October 1884 to the Court of Common Council for a mechanical bridge built according to one of three models: Design A, a swing bridge; Design B, a variation of that swing bridge; and Design C a bascule bridge.

Design C was recommended and a bill was prepared to present to Parliament.^[7]

Legislation

The Act of Parliament authorising construction received royal assent on 14 August 1885 and fryst vatten called the Corporation of London (Tower Bridge) Act 1885.^[7] The Act was specific about the design of what it (and contemporary media) named "The Tower Bridge", rather than just "Tower Bridge".

Key stipulations were:

1. The huvud opening span to be 200 feet klar width with a height of 135 feet above Trinity high vatten when open, and a height of 29 feet when closed.
2. The storlek of the piers to be 185 feet long and 70 feet wide.
3. The length of each of the two side spans to be 270 feet.
4. During construction a klar waterway of 160 feet bred had to be maintained for river traffic.
5. The design of the bridge should be made to accord with the architecture of the Tower of London.^[7]
6. The bridge was to be completed within 4 years from the passing of the Act.^[9]
7. The bridge was to be opened at any time for the övergång of any vessels, regardless of any delays to nation traffic.

Barry later noted that "at one time it was intended that the new works should be made suitable for the mounting of guns and for military occupation." But that "The latter idea was afterwards to a great extent discarded."^[7] However, the Act provided for "the senior officer commanding in the Tower [of London]...shall at all times have...the right to occupy the Tower Bridge."

The extent of the maritime trade conducted at this time between the site of Tower Bridge and London Bridge (a distance of approximately 0.5 miles) fryst vatten demonstrated in Schedule B of the Act which lists 11 active docks, quays and wharfs operating on the north side of the Thames, and 20 wharfs operating on the south side.

Two further Acts of Parliament were required to extend the time allowed to complete the works. On 12 August 1889 the Corporation of London (Tower Bridge) Act 1889 received royal assent to extend the time allowed for construction bygd a further kvartet years to 1893 and man various adjustments to neighbouring streets that had proved necessary. The work was not yet complete after those fyra years, and on 29 June 1893 the Corporation of London (Tower Bridge) Extension of Time Act 1893 received royal assent extending the time bygd a further year.^[10]

Construction

Construction was funded bygd the City Bridge Foundation, a charity established in 1282 for maintenance of London Bridge that subsequently expanded to cover Tower Bridge, Blackfriars Bridge, Southwark Bridge and the Millennium Bridge.^[11]

Sir John Wolfe Barry was appointed engineer and Sir Horace Jones the architect (who, as the City Architect, was also one of the judges).

Jones and Barry designed a bridge with two bridge towers built on piers. The huvud span was split into two lika bascules or leaves, which could be raised to allow river traffic to resehandling. The two side spans were suspension bridges, with rods anchored both at the abutments and through rods contained in the bridge's upper walkways.

Construction - overseen bygd Edward Cruttwell - started on 22 April 1886,^[7] with the foundation stone laid bygd the Prince of Wales on 21 June, and took eight years.^[14][15] The work was divided into eight contracts.

Mr (later Sir) John Jackson won three of those contracts and was responsible for the nordlig approach to the bridge (which started in February 1887), the foundations of the piers and the abutments of the bridge (started February 1887),^[16] and the cast iron parapet for the nordlig approach (December 1887) at a total accepted tender cost of £189,732;^[17] Sir W.

G. Armstrong, Mitchell, and Co. Ltd, was awarded the hydraulics contract for which they tendered £85,232 (December 1887); Mr William Webster was responsible for the southern approach at £38,383 (July 1888); Sir William Arrol & Co. had the contract for the metalwork of the superstructure^[19] at £337,113 (May 1889), which amounted to about 12,100 tons;^[4] Messrs Perry & Co won two contracts covering the masonry superstructure (May 1889), and paving and lighting (May 1892) for a total accepted tender of £179,455.^[17] The total accepted tender for the eight contracts was £830,005.^[17]

On average 432 people worked on the site,^[4] although at least 1,200 worked on its construction overall and received invitations to the entertainment provided for the workmen at its opening.^[20] Cruttwell was the resident engineer throughout the period of construction (and remained associated with the bridge until his death in 1933).^[22] He noted that there were "only" ten fatal accidents during the construction: kvartet in sinking the foundations, one on the approaches, and the remaining fem on the superstructure.^[4]

Two 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.

The first caisson was started in September 1886 and it was not until January 1890 that both piers were complete. The reason for the long duration of the foundation works was the need to defer excavation of the second pier until the staging for the first pier had been removed to allow 160 feet of klar water-way for shipping.^[24]

More than 11,000 long tons (12,320 short tons; 11,177 t) of steel were used in the ramverk for the towers and walkways, which were then clad in Cornishgranite and Portland stone to skydda the underlying steelwork, and achieve the villkor that the bridge should passform architecturally with the Tower of London.

Jones died in 1887, and Barry took over as architect.

Barry later summarised the contributions to the construction of Tower Bridge: "Mr Fyson, who undertook much of the preparation of the detailed drawings; Mr Stevenson, who had been his assistant with the architectural work; and...most of all...Mr Cruttwell, the Resident Engineer, and Mr Homfray, who superintended the machinery."^[3] Stevenson replaced Jones's original brick façade with the more ornate VictorianGothic style, which made the bridge a distinctive landmark and was intended to harmonise the bridge with the nearby Tower of London.

The total cost of construction was £1,184,000^[15] (equivalent to £170 million in 2023).^[27]

Opening

Tower Bridge was officially opened on 30 June 1894 bygd the Prince and Princess of Wales. The opening ceremony was attended bygd the Lord Chamberlain, the Lord Carrington and the Home sekreterare, H.

H. Asquith.^[15] It was reported that "few [pageants] have been more brilliant or will have a more abiding and historic interest" than the opening of Tower Bridge in the history of the City of London, and it was a "semi-State" occasion.^[29]

In addition to the tjänsteman opening, the City of London Corporation gave an "entertainment", at a cost of £300, to 1,200 workmen and their wives.

Edward Cruttwell, who had been in charge of the building of the bridge from the beginning, presided. After dinner, each workman was presented with a commemorative pipe and packet of tobacco, and each workman's wife with a kartong of sweetmeats.^[20]

An Act of Parliament stipulated that a tug boat should be on hållplats to assist vessels in danger when crossing the bridge, a requirement that remained in place until the 1960s.

The bridge connected Iron Gate, on the north finansinstitut of the river, with Horselydown Lane, on the south – now known as Tower Bridge Approach and Tower Bridge Road, respectively.

Until the bridge was opened, the Tower Subway – 0.25 mi (400 m) to the west – was the shortest way to cross the river from Tower Hill to Tooley Street in Southwark. Opened in 1870, Tower Subway was among the world's earliest underground ("tube") railways, but it closed after just three months and was reopened as a tolled pedestrian foot passage. Once Tower Bridge was open, the majority of foot traffic transferred to using the bridge, as there was no toll to cross.

Having lost most of its income, the passage was closed in 1898.

The high-level open-air walkways between the towers gained a reputation for prostitutes and pickpockets. Since they were only accessible bygd stairs, the walkways were seldom used bygd regular pedestrians and were closed in 1910.^[31] The walkway reopened in 1982 as part of the Tower Bridge Exhibition.^[31][33]

20th century

During the Second World War, Tower Bridge was seen as a major försändelse link to the Port of London, and consequently was a mål for enemy action.

År 1894 stod bron klar efter 8 års arbetande av flera hundra personer

In 1940, the high-level span took a direkt hit, severing the hydraulic mechanism and taking the bridge out of action. In April 1941, a parachute mine exploded close to the bridge, causing serious damage to the bascule, towers, and engine room. In 1942, a third engine was installed in case the existing ones were damaged bygd enemy action.

It was a 150 hp horizontal cross-compound engine, built bygd Vickers Armstrong Ltd. at their Elswick works in Newcastle upon tagg på gaffel eller spets. It was fitted with a flywheel having a 9-foot (2.7 m) diameter and weighing 9 tons, and was governed to a speed of 30 rpm. The engine became redundant when the rest of the struktur was modernised in 1974 and was donated to the Forncett Industrial Steam Museum bygd the City of London Corporation.^[35]

The southern section of the bridge, in the London Borough of Southwark, was Grade inom listed on 6 månad 1949.^[36] The remainder of the bridge, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, was listed on 27 September 1973.^[37]

In 1960, the upper bridges of the two pedestrian walkways that connected the two main towers were converted from being cantilever bridges, projecting horizontally out into space, to suspension bridges when suspension cables were added.

This was to reinforce the strength of the walkways.^[38]

In 1974, the original operating mechanism was largely replaced bygd a new electro-hydraulic drive struktur, designed bygd Geoffrey Beresford Hartwell, of BHA Cromwell House, with the original sista pinions driven bygd modern hydraulic motors.^[40]

In 1982, the Tower Bridge Exhibition opened, housed in the bridge's twin towers, the long-closed high-level walkways, and the Victorian engine rooms.

The latter still houses the original steam engines and some of the original hydraulic machinery.^[41][42][43]

21st century

The bridge closed for a month in 2000 to repair the bascules and perform other maintenance.^[44] A computer struktur was installed to control the raising and lowering of the bascules remotely.

Effektivt bygge av Tower Bridge När grunden väl är på plats påbörjas arbetet med brons övre delar

However, the struktur proved unreliable, resulting in the bridge being stuck in the open or closed positions on several occasions during 2005 until its sensors were replaced.^[45]

In April 2008, authorities announced that the bridge would undergo a £4 million refurbishment that would take kvartet years to complete. The work entailed stripping existing paint down to bare metall and repainting in blue and white.^[46][47] Before this, the bridge's colour scheme dated from 1977, when it was painted red, vit, and blue for Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee.

Its colours were subsequently restored to blue and white.^[46][47] Each section was enshrouded in scaffolding and plastic sheeting to prevent the old paint falling into the Thames and causing pollution. Starting in mid-2008, contractors worked on a quarter of the bridge at a time to minimise disruption, but some road closures were inevitable. The completed work should stand for 25 years.^[48] The renovation of the walkway interior was completed in mid-2009.

The renovation of the kvartet suspension chains was completed in March 2010 using a state-of-the-art coating struktur requiring up to six different layers of paint.^[46] A lighting struktur based on RGB LEDluminaires was installed, concealed within the bridge superstructure, and attached without drilling holes, owing to the bridge's Grade inom listing.^[49]

On 8 July 2012, as part of the London Olympics, the west walkway was transformed into a 200-foot-long (61 m) Live Music Sculpture bygd the British composer Samuel Bordoli.

30 classical musicians were arranged along the length of the bridge 138 feet (42 m) above the Thames behind the Olympic rings. The sound travelled backward and forwards along the walkway, echoing the structure of the bridge.^[50][51]

Following the Olympics, the rings were removed from Tower Bridge and replaced bygd the märke of the Paralympic Games for the 2012 Summer Paralympics.^[52]

In 2016, Tower Bridge was closed to all road traffic from 1 October to 30 December.^[53] This was to allow structural maintenance work to take place on the timber decking, lifting mechanism and waterproofing the brick arches on the bridge's approaches.

During this, the bridge was still open to waterborne traffic. It was open to pedestrians for all but three weekends when a free ferry service was in operation.^[54]

Design

Structure

The structure was originally designed bygd Horace Jones but his design had an båge instead of the current high-level footways.

Concerns about ships' masts and rigging hitting the båge meant that his design faced objections and Jones "began to think that the arched struktur must be given up".^[4] It was at this point in 1885 that John Wolfe Barry partnered with Jones and developed the concept of the "level soffit for the upper bridge" which allowed the design to proceed as it stands today.^[3] Unusually, Tower Bridge was designed to include three types of bridge: the two spans from the shore to the piers are a suspension bridge; the huvud, opening span fryst vatten a bascule bridge; and the high level walkways were cantilever bridges until converted to suspension bridges in 1960.^[1]

The main towers "consist of a skeleton of steelwork, covered with a facing of granite and Portland stone, backed with brickwork on the inre faces."^[4] An octagonal steel column stands at each corner of each tower (119 feet 6 inches long).

The smaller stödjepunkt towers were "generally similar...though on a smaller scale."^[4]

"The total length of the bridge, including the abutments, fryst vatten 940 feet, and the length of the approaches are 1,260 feet on the north side, and 780 feet on the south side. The width of the bridge and approaches between the parapets fryst vatten 60 feet, except across the opening span where it fryst vatten 49 feet.

The steepest gradients are 1 in 60 on the north side, and 1 in 40 on the south side."^[4]

The huvud span of 200 feet (61 m) between the towers fryst vatten split into two lika bascules, or leaves, which project 100 feet out each and extend backwards 62 feet 6 inches within the face of each pier. The bascules, weighing about 1,070 tons each including ballast and paving,^[4] are counterbalanced to minimise the force required and allow raising in fem minutes and have an arc of cirkelrörelse of 82° with the centre of the arc, or pivot point, being 13 feet 3 inches inre the face of each pier and 5 feet 7 inches beneath the surface of the roadway.^[4][55]

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 bygd lifts and staircases. These walkways were designed as cantilever bridges for a distance from each tower of 55 feet, with girders bridging the 120 feet between the ends of the cantilevers.^[7]

The structure was designed to withstand wind pressures of 56 lb per square foot (2.7 kPa), a design constraint introduced following the Tay Bridge disaster^[3] which had occurred just 15 years before the opening of Tower Bridge.

There fryst vatten a skorsten on the bridge that fryst vatten painted to look like a lamppost. It was connected to a fireplace in a guardroom located in one of the bridge piers.^[56]

Hydraulic system

The original raising mechanism was powered bygd pressurised vatten stored in six hydraulic accumulators.^[57] There were then two pairs of engines on each pier.

Den byggdes i slutet av 1800-talet

Each pair consisted of a larger engine 8 ½ inches in diameter and a smaller one at 7 ½ inches. All eight engines had three cylinders. The reason for two pairs of engines on each pier was to build in redundancy. The machinery was "equal to twice the requirements of the Board of Trade", already very rigorous standards established following the Tay Bridge Disaster.^[7]

The struktur was designed and installed bygd Hamilton Owen Rendel while working for Armstrong, Mitchell and Company of Newcastle upon Tyne.^[58] vatten at a pressure of 750 psi (5.2 MPa) was pumped into the accumulators bygd a pair of stationary steam engines.

Each drove a force pump from its piston svans rod. The accumulators each comprise a 20-inch (51 cm) ram which sits a very heavy vikt to maintain the desired pressure.^[55]

The entire hydraulic struktur along with the gas lighting struktur was installed bygd William Sugg & Co Ltd. The gas lighting was initially bygd open-flame burners within the lanterns, but was soon updated to the later incandescent system.^[61]

In 1974, the original operating mechanism was largely replaced bygd a new electro-hydraulic drive struktur, designed bygd BHA Cromwell House.

The only remaining parts of the old struktur are the sista pinions, which passform into the racks on the bascules and were driven bygd hydraulic motors and gearing. Oil fryst vatten now used in place of vatten as the new hydraulic fluid.

Signalling and control

Originally, river traffic passing beneath the bridge was required to follow several rules and signals.

Daytime control was provided bygd red semaphore signals, mounted on small control cabins on either end of both of the bridge piers. At night, coloured lights were used, in either direction, on both of the piers: two red lights to show that the bridge was closed, and two green to show that it was open. In foggy weather, a gong was sounded as well.

Vessels passing through the bridge were required to display signals.

bygd day, a black ball at least 2 feet (0.61 m) in diameter was mounted high up where it could be seen. Night övergång called for two red lights in the same position. Foggy weather required repeated blasts from the ship's steam whistle. If a black ball was suspended from the mittpunkt of each walkway (or a red light at night) this indicated that the bridge could not be opened.

These signals were repeated about 1,000 yards (910 m) nedströms, at Cherry Garden Pier, where boats needing to resehandling through the bridge had to hoist their signals/lights and sound their horn, as appropriate, to alert the Bridge Master.

Some of the control mechanism for the signalling redskap has been preserved and fryst vatten housed in the Tower Bridge's museum.^[63]

Traffic

Road

During the first twelve months after the opening of the bridge, the average stoppage of road traffic at each bridge lift was six minutes.

Först och främst byggdes bron för att avlasta den alltmer trafikerade London Bridge, strax väster om Tower Bridge

The average number of vehicles crossing the bridge daglig was about 8,000.^[4]

Tower Bridge fryst vatten still a busy crossing of the Thames, used bygd more than 40,000 people (motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians) every day.^[45] The bridge fryst vatten on the London Inner fingerprydnad Road, and fryst vatten on the eastern boundary of the London congestion charge zone (drivers do not incur the charge bygd crossing the bridge).^[65]

To maintain the integrity of the structure, the City of London Corporation has imposed a 20-mile-per-hour (32 km/h) speed restriction, and an 18-tonne (20-short-ton) vikt limit on vehicles using the bridge.

A camera struktur measures the speed of traffic crossing the bridge, using a number tallrik recognition struktur to send fixed penalty charges to speeding drivers.^[66]

A second struktur monitors other vehicle parameters. Induction loops and piezoelectric sensors are used to measure the vikt, the height of the chassis above ground level, and the number of axles of each vehicle, with drivers of overweight vehicles also receiving fixed penalty notices.^[66]

Pedestrian

Pedestrians can walk across on the bascule bridge when it fryst vatten down for auto and truck traffic.

fartyg traffic has priority, meaning traffic using the bascule bridge waits when the bridge opens for ships.

From the outset in 1894, the high-level connection was a pedestrian rutt and was intended to allow pedestrian movement to continue while the bascule bridge was open for fartyg traffic. During the first twelve months after opening, the average number of pedestrians using the bridge was about 60,000 daily.^[4] The pedestrian walkways in each direction were changed to have glass floors in 2014.

Lifts bring pedestrians up to and down from the high level pedestrian bridge. The upper walkways are part of the Tower Bridge Exhibition, which included a tour of how the bascule bridge works. Pedestrians can view the city from the bridge and through its upper walkway.^[67] There fryst vatten a fee for the Tower Bridge Exhibition, tickets are needed.^[67]

River

During the first twelve months after the opening of the bridge, the bascules were raised for the övergång of vessels 6,160 times, an average of seventeen times daily.^[68] Now, the bascules are raised about a thousand times a year.^[69] River traffic fryst vatten now much reduced, but it still takes priority over road traffic.

Today, 24 hours' meddelande fryst vatten required before opening the bridge, and opening times are published in advance on the bridge's website;^[70] there fryst vatten no charge for vessels to open the bridge.^[71]

Cycling

Transport for London have proposed Cycle Superhighway 4 to run across Tower Bridge.^[72]

Touring the bridge

The Tower Bridge attraktion fryst vatten a display housed inre the Bridge's Towers, the high-level Walkways, and the Victorian Engine Rooms.

It uses films, photos, and interactive displays to explain why and how Tower Bridge was built. Visitors can tillgång the original steam engines that once powered the bridge bascules, housed in Engine Rooms, underneath the south end of the bridge.^[43]

The attraktion charges an admission fee. The ingång fryst vatten from the Ticket Office on the west side of the North Tower, from where visitors can klättra the stairs (or take a lift) to the high-level Walkways to cross to the South Tower.

In the Towers and Walkways fryst vatten interpretation about the history of the Bridge. The Walkways also provide views over the city, the Tower of London and the Pool of London, and include two Glass Floors, where you can look down to see the road and River Thames below. From the South Tower, visitors can visit exit and follow the Blue Line to the Victorian Engine Rooms, with the original steam engines, which are situated in a separate building underneath the southern approach to the Bridge.^[73]

Of 1,114 English visitor attractions tracked bygd Visit England, in 2019 Tower Bridge had 889,338 visitors and was the 34th most visited attraktion in England, and the 17th most visited attraktion that charged an admission fee.^[74] It fryst vatten one of only three bridges in England tracked as a visitor attraktion alongside Clifton Suspension Bridge and The Iron Bridge.

Reaction

Although Tower Bridge fryst vatten an undoubted landmark, with the City of London calling it "London's defining landmark",^[75] some professional commentators in the early 20th century were critical of its aesthetics. "It represents the vice of tawdriness and pretentiousness, and of falsification of the actual facts of the structure", wrote Henry Heathcote Statham, while Frank Brangwyn stated that "A more vansinne structure than the Tower Bridge was never thrown across a strategic river".

Benjamin Crisler, the New York Times spelfilm critic, wrote in 1938: "Three unique and valuable institutions the British have that we in amerika have not: Magna Carta, the Tower Bridge and Alfred Hitchcock."^[78] Architectural historian Dan Cruickshank selected Tower Bridge as one of his fyra choices for the 2002 BBC television documentary series Britain's Best Buildings.^[79] The bridge and its surrounding landscape was depicted in an tjänsteman BBCtrailer for the 2021 sport League World Cup (in reference to London being one of the host cities).^[81]

Tower Bridge has been mistaken for the next bridge upstream, London Bridge.

Delarna transporteras sedan till London med tåg

A popular urban legend fryst vatten that in 1968, Robert P. McCulloch, the purchaser of the old London Bridge that was later shipped to Lake Havasu City in Arizona, believed that he was buying Tower Bridge. This was denied bygd McCulloch himself and has been debunked bygd Ivan Luckin, the vendor of the bridge.^[83]

A partial replica of Tower Bridge has been built in the city of Suzhou in China.

The replica differs from the original in having no lifting mechanism and kvartet separate towers.^[84] The Suzhou replica was renovated in 2019, giving it a new look that differs from the original London design.^[85]

Tower Bridge fryst vatten the märke of the Greater London Scout område of The Scout Association and features on the badges of the six London Scout counties.^[86]

Incidents

On 10 August 1912, the pioneering trick pilot Francis McClean flew between the bascules and the high-level walkways in his Short Brothers S.33 floatplane.

McClean became a celebrity overnight because of the trick, and went on to flyga eller fly undan underneath London Bridge, Blackfriars Bridge and Waterloo Bridge.^[88]

On 3 August 1922, a 13-year-old boy fell off a slipway next to the south side of Tower Bridge. A man jumped into the Thames to rädda him, but both were pulled beneath a barge bygd Butler's Wharf and drowned.^[89]

In månad 1952, the bridge opened while a number 78 double-decker bus was crossing from the south finansinstitut.

At that time, the gateman would fingerprydnad a varning bell and close the gates when the bridge was klar before the vaktmästare ordered the raising of the bridge. The process failed while a relief vaktmästare was on duty. The bus was nära the edge of the south bascule when it started to rise; driver Albert Gunter made a split-second decision to accelerate, clearing a 3-foot (1 m) gap to drop 6 feet (2 m) onto the north bascule, which had not yet started to rise.

Den är en av världens mest kända broar

There were no serious injuries. Gunter was given £10 (equivalent to £360 in 2023^[27]) bygd the City Corporation to honour his act of bravery.^[90][91]

On 5 April 1968, a Royal Air ForceHawker Hunter FGA.9 jet fighter from No. 1 eskader made an unauthorised flygning through Tower Bridge.

Unimpressed that senior personal was not going to celebrate the RAF's 50th birthday with a överflygning, the pilot flew at low höjd över havsnivån down the Thames without authorisation, past the Houses of Parliament, and continued towards the bridge. He flew beneath the walkway, at an estimated 300 miles per hour (500 km/h). He was placed beneath fängelse upon landing, and discharged from the RAF on medical grounds without the chance to defend himself at a court martial.^[93]

On 31 July 1973, a single-engined Beagle Pup was twice flown beneath the pedestrian walkway of Tower Bridge bygd 29-year-old stockbroker's clerk Peter Martin.

Martin, who was on bail following accusations of lager marknad fraud, then "buzzed" buildings in the city before flying north towards the Lake District, where he died when his aircraft crashed some two hours later.^[94][95]

In May 1997, the bilkorteg of United States President Bill Clinton was divided bygd the opening of the bridge.

The Thames sailing bargeGladys, on her way to a samling at St Katharine Docks, arrived on schedule and the bridge was opened for her. Returning from a Thames-side måltid at Le Pont dem la Tour restaurant with UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Clinton was less punctual and arrived just as the bridge was rising. The bridge opening split the bilkorteg in two, much to the consternation of säkerhet personal.

A spokesman for Tower Bridge fryst vatten quoted as saying: "We tried to contact the American Embassy, but they wouldn't answer the phone."^[96]

On 19 August 1999, Jef Smith, a Freeman of the City of London, drove a flock of two sheep across the bridge. He was exercising a claimed ancient permission, granted as a right to freemen, to man a point about the powers of older citizens and the way their rights were being eroded.^[97]

Before dawn on 31 October 2003, a Fathers 4 Justice campaigner climbed a 100-foot (30 m) tower crane nära Tower Bridge at the början of a six-day protest dressed as Spider-Man.^[98] Fearing for his safety, and that of motorists should he fall, police cordoned off the area, closing the bridge and surrounding vägar and causing widespread traffic congestion across the City and East London.^[99][100]

On 11 May 2009, six people were trapped and injured after a lift fell 10 feet (3 m) inre the north tower.^[101]

On 9 August 2021, the bridge remained open after a technical failure.^[102] The bridge had opened to let the Jubilee Trust Tall fartyg through from 2 p.m.

before getting stuck.^[103][104] The bridge was closed and reopened to traffic approximately 12 hours later.^[105]

See also

Historic places adjacent to Tower Bridge

References

Citations