Thursday, March 26, 2015

Tower Bridge Exhibition

London The Unfinished City
Built to last.
Saturday March 26, 2015.

For a birthday treat, I went to the Tower Bridge Exhibition, as I was eager to see the newly installed glass floors. I had last walked across the pedestrian walkways in 1982, when I was 10.

The sheer scale of the bridge, and its inner workings, are amazing to behold, considering what tools they had to use, back in the 1880s.



Brief History

The Victorian steam engines, that raised the bascules of the bridge, required 80 people to maintain and operate them. When it first opened Tower Bridge was raised between 20-30 times a day, to allow the passing of ships to and from the various docks that lined the south bank, of the River Thames.

Electricity finally replaced the steam powered engines, which had been in service for 82 years, in 1976. 


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