When Was Tower Bridge Built?
The construction of the Tower Bridge in London began in 1886 and eight years later, it was officially opened on 30 June, 1894 by the King of Wales and his wife. The bridge is built over the Thames River in London, the United Kingdom. It is a suspension bridge
Increased commerce in the 19th century posed the city authorities with a new problem – transport; and crossing the Thames River was a part of the problem. A committee chaired by Sir Albert Joseph Altman was formed in 1876 to find the solution to the problem. The new committee opened a competition for designs for the new bridge. Over 50 designs were submitted and eight years later the design of Horace Jones, an English architect, was selected.
The construction set off in 1886 and over 430 workers were employed over the next eight years to construct the bridge. The cost of the construction was over 100 million euros in today’s currency and over 11,000 tons of steel was used to build the framework of the bridge. The bridge is 244 meters in length and the two towers are 65 meters high. The bridge is split between two equal bascules which can be raised to an angle of 83 degrees to allow ships or other river traffic to pass and this is what makes the bridge unique. Diesel engines used to power this movement but they were removed in 1974. The bridge is crossed by 40,000 people everyday and there is a speed limit of 32 km/h imposed on the vehicles crossing the bridge. The bridge was colored again in 1977 and it is scheduled to go under a four million euro facelift before 2012.
