B/W print; A view of William Tierney Clark's old Hammersmith Bridge together with the river's foreshore by Will F Taylor, circa 1880
Main details
| Reference number | 1999/1622 |
|---|---|
| Description | A view of William Tierney Clark's old Hammersmith Bridge together with the river's foreshore, as seen from the Upper Mall c1880. |
| Photographer | |
| Dates | circa 1880 |
| Collection | |
| Object type |
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| Photograph number | Ukn |
| Location | |
| Topics | |
| Completeness | 58% |
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Physical description
Item content Attribute Value Annotation OLD HAMMERSMITH BRIDGE, FROM THE UPPER HALL, c. 1880. This was the first suspension bridge built across the Thames. It was quite a fine structure, notable for the good proportions of the piers and for many points of originality in the bearings and trussings. It was built in 1824-27, by William Tierney Clark (1783-1854), who subsequently built the famous bridge over the Danube, connecting Buda with Pesth. Born at Bristol, Clark was for a time a mechanic with the Coalbrookdale Ironworks, then constructing bridges for Telford and other well-known engineers. It was here that Clark gained his first practical experience of bridge-work. In 1806 he obtained a post with the elder Rennie, and later became engineer to the West Middlesex Waterworks Co., whose area of supply was then merely the village of Hammersmith. Clark built the reservoirs and filter beds at Barnes. The cost of old Hammersmith Bridge and its approaches was £80,000. A defect from the traffic point of view was that the openings in the piers (through which all the traffic crossing the bridge had to pass) were only 14 feet wide. The Bridge was acquired by the M.B.W. in 1880, and rebuilt by them in 1885.
Photograph by Will F. Taylor, supplied Feb. 25th, 1925.Design Attribute Value Shot Medium exterior -
People involved
Role Person(s) involved Photographer Will F Taylor, circa 1880 -
Associated companies, people and places
Places Location Hammersmith Bridge, Hammersmith and Barnes, Hammersmith and Fulham and Richmond, W6 and SW13People Attribute Value People Charles White -