Tower Bridge in London

Tower Bridge is located in London on the river Thames and connects Tower Hamlets or the north side to Sothwark on the south side. It was opened to public on 30th june 1894 and took eight year in construction which has contribution of five contractors and 432 construction workers.

As London became populated, it required a bridge downstream without affecting the river traffic. Over 50 designs were reviewed and in 1884 the final design by Horace Jones and John Wolfe Barry was chosen. It took 11,000 tons of steel in the construction of the bridge, then two towers and the walkway. When the bridge was completed it was the designed as a bascule or see-saw bridge. It had two bascules one on each side which were operated by hydraulically operated. Steam engines gave power to the pumping engine and the energy created was stored in massive accumulators. When the bridge had to be raised the accumulators fed the driving engine which in-turn moved the bascules. It took just a minute to raise them to an angle of 86 degrees. From the year 1976 the steam engine has been replaced by hydraulic pumps which work using electricity not steam.