| Show BRIDGE LONG PART OF LONDON TOWN structure across thames in use for more than a century that bridge across the thames at london which Is borne upon five granite arches and known na as london bridge has completed yell years rs of history but its namo name Is much older than a century at or near the point at it which this modern structure spans the river there hns has been a crossing from time immemorial the saxons had a bridge there or successive bridges made of wood and ba barred by a fortified gatea gate a gate to the city it was swept away by a storm torn then in 1180 only a little more than a century after the conque conqueror had bad come was commenced that stone structure which served river crossing londoners Lon doners for nearly G 0 years until the middle of the eighteenth century it alone drew draw together the two banks ot of the thames at london in its it vied with the rialto of venice and the ponte lilo Florence of which in some gome part it resembled on each side of fit its roadway it had shops and stately houses some with gardens on their roots roofs there was a twelfth century chapel on a wider pier at about the middle the structure however was suited better to the ideals and customs ot of the middle ages than to modern notions eions about bridges within the feet of the rivers width it had 18 solid stone piers varying from 25 5 to 84 34 feet in thickness so that in effect it sent the waters of the thames through a greatly narrowed channel the piers supported build ines four stories in height which in turn narrowed the passage for vehicles and pedestrians and darkened it to almost tunnel blackness the buildings were cleared away in the middle of tha eighteenth century but the obstruction to navigation still remained and in 1823 after bitter debate it was decreed that a new bridge must be bulit built two years laier the duke of f york laid the foundation stone and then after six years more the new structure only a few yards higher up the river was opened with flags music oratory tind and parades in the foll following year oll old london bridge went I 1 the way of the centuries but london bridge Is still london bridge it still divides the thames into above and below and though there are other bridges now tower an and victoria waterloo and westminster and the rest it still carries londoners Lon doners from one bank to the other just as its predecessors carried sanon and conqueror knight anil and cleric and ana though the pace Is swifter now what with motor cars cara speeding along the deck widened in the beginning of the motor age the bridge has not broken with britaina Brit ains past its lamp posts are cast of the cannon britons captured in the war of ohp peninsula |
