Waterloo Bridge
Waterloo Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London, England between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge.
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History
The first bridge on the site was designed in 1809-10 by John Rennie for the Strand Bridge Company and opened in 1817 as a toll bridge. The granite bridge had nine arches, each of 120 feet (36.6 m) span, separated by double Grecian-Doric stone columns and was 2,456 feet (748.6 m) long, including approaches. Before its opening it was known as 'Strand Bridge'. During the 1840s the bridge gained a reputation as a popular place for suicide attempts. In 1844 Thomas Hood wrote the poem The Bridge of Sighs about the suicide of a prostitute there.[1] Paintings of the bridge were created by the French Impressionist Claude Monet and English Impressionist, John Constable. The bridge was nationalised in 1878 and given to the Metropolitan Board of Works, who removed the toll from it.
In June 2012, the bridge was highlighted on the route of Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the Thames.[2]
Gallery
Crowds attend the opening of Waterloo Bridge on 18 June 1817
View of the old Waterloo Bridge from Whitehall stairs, John Constable
The design called for supporting beams only at the outside edges, to bring "light and sweetness" to the underside[3]
The centre span of the bridge, showing how it is carried on the cantilevered ends of the main beams
The completed bridge with the City of London behind
Waterloo Bridge Media
View towards Finsbury while walking the Waterloo Bridge
Share of the Company of the Proprietors of the Strand Bridge, issued 30 December 1809
Waterloo Bridge, about 1925
Waterloo Bridge by Charles Deane, 1821
Related pages
References
- ↑ Ebeneezer Brewer (1970), Brewers Dictionary of Phrase and Fable Cassell. p.152.
- ↑ Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant, Key facts Archived 2012-06-05 at the Wayback Machine; Londontown.com, "Thames Jubilee Pageant,"; retrieved 2012-6-4.
- ↑ Giles Gilbert Scott, quoted in Hopkins (1970)
Other websites
Media related to Waterloo Bridge at Wikimedia Commons
- Survey of London entry Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
- Peter Lind & Company Archived 2008-11-21 at the Wayback Machine
- Waterloo Bridge (1917) at Structurae
- Waterloo Bridge (1945) at Structurae
Coordinates: 51°30′31″N 0°07′01″W / 51.50861°N 0.11694°W
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