Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge, bridge on the Thames River in London, near the Tower of London, one of the city's principal landmarks. Built between 1886 and 1894, it has two Gothic-style towers and a central drawbridge; this design was governed both by the navigational requirements of ships and barge trains that passed below and by the Gothic style that Parliament demanded in order to harmonize with the nearby Tower of London. The engineer was Sir John Wolfe Barry and the architect Sir Horace Jones, both British. Jones described the bridge's towers as “steel skeletons clothed with stone.” The towers contain both the hydraulic mechanisms for lifting the drawbridge, and the elevators to the upper pedestrian walkway. The two halves of the drawbridge swing open to allow taller ships to pass. The pedestrian walkway was originally built to allow the unimpeded flow of foot traffic, when the bridge had to be raised. However in 1909, only 13 years after it opened, the upper walkway was closed when it was found that few pedestrians ever used it. In 1982 the walkway was reopened for the use of tourists.