B/W print; View of Tower Bridge, as seen from the south-west, showing traffic passing over the bascules by Topical Press, Jul 1923
Main details
| Reference number | 1999/20206 |
|---|---|
| Description | View of Tower Bridge, as seen from the south-west, showing traffic passing over the bascules. The bridge is lowered, and in the foreground several barges can be seen moored to the bank; a man sits at the stern of one of the barges. |
| Photographer | |
| Dates | Jul 1923 |
| Collection | |
| Object type |
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| Photograph number | U1899 |
| Location | |
| Topics | |
| Completeness | 73% |
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Physical description
Dimensions Attribute Value Descriptive size 8x6insItem content Attribute Value Annotation ACHIEVEMENT:
THE TOWER BRIDGE, FROM THE SOUTH-WEST, IN 1923; SHOWING TRAFFIC PASSING OVER THE BASCULES.
The high-level footbridges are 141 feet above high-water mark. The span between the two central towers in 200 feet, the shore spans 270 feet each. Width between parapets: bascule section, 49 feet; suspension sections, 60 feet. Total length of bridge, 940 feet; northern approach 1,260 feet; southern approach, 780 feet. Cost, with approaches: £1,500,000.
Photograph (taken July, 1923) by Topical Press. Underground C/rt.
GENERAL NOTICE. The Act of 1885 authorised the Corporation to borrow, on the credit of the Bridge House Estates, the sum of £750,000 and such further sums as might be required from time to time for the construction of the new bridge, which was to be completed within four years. The total expenditure, including the cost of the approaches, was eventually £1,500,000, and the time occupied on the work was eight years, various extensions being obtained, the final one being to August 14, 1894. Work began on April 22, 1886, and the bridge was opened to the public on July 9, 1894, after a ceremonial opening by the Prince of Wales on June 30 of the same year.
The Tower Bridge is a suspension bridge with a secondary bascule bridge in the centre span to permit the passage of vessels and rigid footbridge high above the bascules for pedestrian traffic while the bascules are in operation. The total length of the bridge itself is 940 feet; the northern approach, extending to Little Tower Hill and formed on the old glacis and part of the eastern ditch of the Tower, is 1,260 feet; while the southern approach, extending towards Tooley St., is 780 feet. The suspension spans are each 270 feet long and are hung on chains passing from portal towers on the shore to two lofty square Gothic towers in the tideway, 200 feet apart, between which is the bascule bridge. The bascule bridge is 29½ feet above high-water mark; when the bascules are raised the fairway for ships is 200 feet in width by 141 feet in height, the latter figure being the height of the footbridges above high-water mark. The bascules rotate through an angle of 80º and their rear ends in the bascule chambers of the piers carry 365 tons of counterweight. The total weight of each bascule is 1,070 tons. They can be raised and lowered in one minute, but the usual time occupied is 1½ minutes. The central towers are provided with lifts and staircases for communication between the bridge proper and the footbridges above. These lifts have never been used, however, for public traffic since the bridge was opened. At first it was customary for people crossing the bridge to ascend to the footbridges when the bascules were being raised, but the ascent was made as much for the sake of novelty and for the view from the footbridges as anything else, the time occupied in making the footbridge crossing being much longer than the time taken in raising and lowering the bascules. For some years past these footbridges have been closed altogether, and are now merely a sort of emergency crossing, available should there be a hitch in the working of the bascules, a very remote contingency.
It has been alleged that the architecture of the Tower Bridge tends to debar a true appreciation of the remarkable engineering achievement that is the real feature of the bridge. The truth would seem to be that it is an exceedingly happy combination of architecture and engineering, and the spectacle of the ponderous bascules being raised and lowered by some invisible power is far more impressive than it would otherwise be were the general design of the bridge such that it permitted the spectator to observe the mechanical appurtenances. The bridge is majestic, and it is beautiful, because Art and Mechanics are in affinity.Design Attribute Value Shot long exterior -
People involved
Role Person(s) involved Photographer Topical Press, Jul 1923Copied by Colin Tait, 1982 -
Associated companies, people and places
Places Location Tower Bridge, Tower Hamlets and Southwark, E1 and SE1People Attribute Value People Charles White -