London Bridge

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

the earliest bridge across the Thames at London. It is situated about a half a mile above the Tower. The first bridge was built of wood. It was carried away by a storm and high tide November 16, 1091. The first stone bridge was built a century later. A roadway of 20 stone arches rested on wooden piling. It was 45 feet wide, 926 feet long and rose 60 feet above water. A row of shops, stalls, and houses sprang up on each side of the roadway, until the bridge became a continuous street from shore to shore. It was terminated at each shore by gates, on the pinnacles of which the heads of traitors were exposed to public view. This is the London Bridge of history and literature. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Sir John Hewitt, Lord Mayor, dwelt on the Bridge. His daughter fell into the river and was rescued by Edward Osborne, an apprentice. Of course the fortunate youth married the daughter and thereby laid the foundation of his fortune, becoming later the Duke of Leeds. This bridge was for centuries the only bridge across the Thames. Others, as the Blackfriars, Waterloo, Battersea, Albert, Chelsea, and Southwark, have been built since. In 1831 the present London Bridge was opened. It lies half a block above the old one. It was designed by John Rennie, a Scotch engineer. It is fifty-four feet wide and 928 feet long. It is carried on five granite arches. That of the center is 153 feet in span. It cost upward of $10,000,000. The lamp posts were cast from cannon captured in the peninsular war. The old bridge was pulled down in 1832. London Bridge is a busy place. It is the most frequented bridge in the world. On week days 100,000 pedestrians and 20,000 vehicles cross daily. Heavy drays keep to the center. Lighter carts and carriages keep nearer the sides. At intervals there are recesses in the coping in which pedestrians may stand out of the way and watch the stream of humanity as it pours by. Looking over the coping one may see busy river craft darting through the arches of the bridge. The Thames immediately below the Bridge deepens into the Pool, at all times a veritable forest of masts. See Bridge ; Sonnet