Show BRIDGE LONG PART OF LONDON TOWN structure across thes thames in use for more than th an a century that bridge across the thames nt at london which chic h Is borne b 0 rne upon five granite arches and known as london bridge has completed years soars of history story hl but its name Is much older than n century u ry at or near the point nt at which this modern a structure truc ture spans the river there has been b een a crossing from time immemorial the saxons had a bridge there or successive bridges made of wood and barred by a fortified gate a gite gate to the city it was swept away by b a storm then in 1180 1186 only ionly a little more than a century after the conqueror had come was commenced that stone structure which served river crossing londoners lend Lon doners 0 ners for nearly years until the th e middle of the eighteenth century it alone drew together the two banks bank of the thames at london in its it vied with alth the rialto of venice and the ponte Vac clito of florence which in some part it resembled on each side n rif its roadway it had shops and stately houses some with gardens on their roofs there was a twelfth century chapel on a wider ider pier PI e r at about the middle the structure tuio however holever ho Mever was suited better to the ideals and customs of the middle apes ages than to modern no eions about bridges within tile the feet of the rivers width it had 1 18 solid stone piers varying arylnn from 23 2 to 84 feet 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 aehl vehicles and pedestrians and darkened it to almost tunnel blackness the buildings were cleared away in the middle of the tha eighteenth century but the obstruction to navigation still remained and in 1823 after bitter delate debate it was decreed that a no new w bridge must be built two years laier the duke of york laid th the e foundation stone and then after six IT years more the new st structure only a few yards higher up the river was opened with flags music oratory and parades la in the following year old london bridge went the way or of the centuries but london bridge Is still london bridge it still divides the thames into a above boves and below and though there are other bridges n now tower and victoria waterloo sao and westminster and the rest it t still carries londoners Lon doners from one bank to the other josf as its predecessors carried saxon sason and knight and cleric and though the pace Is swifter now what with motor cars speeding along the deck widened in the beginning of the motor ages age the bridge has not brok broken en with britaina Brit DrIta ains ins past its lamp posts are cast of the cannon britons captured in the war of the ren peninsula |