Tower Bridge

In a glittering ceremony in 1894, the Prince of Wales opened the newly completed Tower Bridge, watched by thousands of spectators, marked by special editions of newspapers and magazines, commemorated by hundreds of souvenirs. Over a century later, 900 million television viewers around the world watched as David Beckham raced a powerboat under the bridge at the spectacular opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics. Between the two events, Tower Bridge had become a symbol of London, its familiar appearance unchanging as the modern capital developed around it. Tower Bridge: The World's Most Famous Bridge tells the story of the iconic structure, from familiar concerns about congested London streets, followed by years of wrangling about how it could be built without affecting the thriving London docks or ruining views of the Tower of London. The result: a Victorian marvel of civil engineering, its workings a tribute to nineteenth-century design and ingenuity. In the years to follow, the bridge witnessed a changing London, standing amid the devastation of the Blitz, remaining a constant as the docks declined and the London skyline changed.
This book tells the story of the famous bridge, explains how it works, why it is loved by Londoners and how it has developed into a tourist attraction visited by hundreds of thousands each year.