Show BRIDGE LONG PART OF ort LONDON TO TOWN structure across thames in use for than a century that bridge across the thames at london which ie Is borne upon live five granite p nolte arches and known ae its london bridge hae has comPle completed tee years of history but its name Is much older than a century at or hear the point at which this modem modern structure pans spans the river there has been a it tr from time immemorial the saxons had a it bridge there or sue bridges made of wood and barred by a forti fortified fled gate gatea a gate to the city it was swept away by a storm then in 1180 only a little more in ore than a century after the condu e er r bad had come was wits commenced that structure hh served river crossing k for nearly 0 years U un n til ill the middle of the eighteenth cen tury tuil it alone drew together the two banks of the thames at london in its plot it vied with ho the rialto of venice and the ponte kichio I 1 of florence rj orence which in some part art it resembled on cich each side of its ts roadway it had shops and state ly y houses some with g girdenis on their roofs there was a twelfth century ch apel on a wider pier at about the middle the structure homeier how ho weier was suited letter better to the ideals and customs of ill he middle ages than to modern no ions lions about bridges within the OW lee feet t of the rivers river a width it had 18 olid stone piers varying from 25 to 34 feeal la in thickness so that in effect it sent the waters of the thames through a greatly narrowed channel the piers supported buildings four stories in height which in turn narrowed the passage for acht cles 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 till still remained and in 1823 after bitter debate it nas ae decreed that a new bridge mut must be built two year tears lator lal r the duke of york laid the fount atlon itono and then after air 1 acara ears more the new structure only a few ard ardit hither higher up the river wae wits opened with flage flags music oratory and parades in the following old london bridge went the way of the centuries but london bridge Is still london bridge it still divides the thames into above t and I 1 below and though there are other bridges now tower and victoria waterloo and westminster and the rest lt it still carries londoners from one bank to the other enst as its predecessors carried saxon and knight and cleric and though the pace Is swifter now what with motor cars along the deck widened in t the he beginning of the motor age the bridge lias has not rot arken with past its lamp posts are cast of the cannon tannon britons captured in the war of the peninsula |