TOWER BRIDGE
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London's most famous bridge, a true symbol of the city with its Gothic towers and weighbridge.
This bridge, the most spectacular in the Thames, symbolizes London in the same way as Big Ben or Westminster. Built in 1894 to facilitate road traffic while maintaining access to the river, this giant and mobile bridge lifts up in a few minutes to allow passing ships to pass through thanks to a revolutionary tilting opening system for the time. It consists of two huge Gothic towers that are not only decorative: they house the steam machinery, dating from the Victorian era, that operated the bascule bridge (since 1976, an electric motor has replaced it). It took eight years and 432 workers to build it. Two massive pillars were poured into the riverbed to support the construction and more than 11,000 tonnes of steel were used. In order to protect the setting and give it a pleasant appearance, it has been covered with Cornish granite and Portland stone. You can visit the control room on the south bank of the river, but also the rooms where engines, accumulators and boilers of the time are exposed... Tower Bridge first opened its doors to the public in 1982. The Tower Bridge Exhibition will teach you all the details of the history and mechanism of the bridge (more than fifty plans have been proposed). Another interesting feature of the museum is that when you climb onto the upper footbridge made of glass panels, you will have a magnificent view of the Thames and its banks at a height of 42 metres.
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