There
has been a bridge across the River Thames in London
for nearly 2,000 years.The first bridge, which was built
by Romans in 43 AD, was a temporary pontoon bridge.
It is said they built this temporary pontoon bridge which
consisted of planks laid across a row of anchored
boats, or ferry boats.
The
next record of a London Bridge is 984 when a widow
(who was thought to be a witch) and
her son had driven pins into the image of a man. The woman was taken
to the London Bridge and drowned while her son escaped.
This bridge was built out of wood.
In
1014, when the Danes held London, the Saxons, under
King Ethelred The Unready, were joined by a band of
Vikings from Norway led by their King Olaf. Together
they sailed up the Thames to attack the Bridge and
divide the Danes. But men protected their ships with
the thatched roofs pulled from the cottages that stood
on and over the London Bridge. They rowed up under
the bridge, put their cables around the piles which
supported it, and rowed off at full speed, pulling
the bridge down. The London Bridge once again had to
be rebuilt.
In
1176, the first stone bridge was built under the direction
of Peter Colechurch. It was common in those days for
men of the cloth to design buildings as they were taught
the art of building arch structures out of stone in
the Monastic Orders.
Completed in 1209, this new London Bridge took 33 years to build and lasted
more than 600 years. It had a road 20 feet wide and 300 yards long. It
was supported by 20 arches which curved to a Gothic-style
point. There was a wooden drawbridge on the bridge
to let ships in and keep invaders out. The flow of
the water was used to turn water wheels below the arches,
first for grinding grain and, in 1580, to pump water
into the city. People and merchants began building
houses and shops on the well-built stone bridge. It
was soon completely covered with buildings.
In
1212, a disaster occurred when a crowd of people were
trapped on the London Bridge between two fires. Many
were burned to death. There was a Stone Gate House on
the bridge and on its roof stood poles where traitors'
heads were placed. This practice started in 1304. Oliver
Cromwell's head was placed on one of the poles 350
years later.
Fire
again struck the Bridge in 1623. This fire started
when a maidservant left a pail of ashes under wooden
stairs. Forty-three houses were destroyed and many
of the shops were also burned and damaged. Soon the
merchants began moving, as the bridge was getting dilapidated.
By
1657, all the houses were pulled down. The bridge was
widened and partly rebuilt with a wide center arch. The
Bridge stood like this for years.
In
1821, a committee was appointed by Parliament to consider
the condition of the bridge. The arches had been badly
damaged by the Great Freeze, so it was decided to build
a new bridge. Plans were submitted and rejected. This
bridge would have to be quite different from the previous
London Bridge as the old prints were for horse drawn
carriages. In 1824, John Rennie's plans were accepted.
The bridge was built 100 feet west of the old bridge. The River Thames narrows
to 900 feet at this point.
On
June 15, 1825, the first stone was laid by the London
Mayor of London, John Garratt, in the presence of the
Duke of York. Six years later, William IV and Queen Adelaide opened
the New London Bridge and the old one was demolished.
This
London Bridge was built out of granite which was quarried
on Dartmoor. It was a structure of 5 arches, and its overall
dimensions were 928 feet long and 49 feet wide.
The
new bridge, wide and spacious
was busy at once and even more so when the railways came
to London, and London Bridge Station opened just south
of London Bridge. Soon a new bridge user, "the commuter" joined
the bridge's traffic and thousands crossed Sir John Rennie's
bridge everyday and became its most familiar scene.
In
1902-04, it was widened by means of corbels, increasing
the space between the parapets to 65
feet and the footpath to 15 feet.
In
1962, it was discovered that the London Bridge was "falling
down," sinking
into the Thames because it was not adequate for
the increase in traffic. The City
of London decided to put the 130-year
old bridge up for auction, and construct
a new one in its place. Robert P.
McCulloch, founder of Lake Havasu
City, AZ, submitted the winning bid
for $2,460,000 in 1968. McCulloch
spent another $7million to move the
London Bridge to Lake Havasu City
which took a total of three years.
The
bridge was shipped by boat 10,000 miles to Long Beach,
California. From there, it was trucked to Lake Havasu
City where it was stored in seven-acre
fenced storage compound. On September
23, 1968, the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Gilbert
Inglefield, laid the corner stone. Robert Beresfornd,
a civil engineer from Nottingham, England was
in charge of the reconstruction of the London
Bridge in Lake Havasu City.
As
a guideline, he had a copy
of the original plans drawn by John Rennie. During the
reconstruction, Mr. Beresford drew sketches of the bridge
in different phases of construction. There are a limited
number of these prints. When Mr. Beresford returned
to England, he gave exclusive right to D & P
Antique in Lake Havasu
City to sell these prints.
Each
piece of the granite bridge was marked with four
numbers: the first indicated
which arch span; the second,
noted which row of stones;
and the last two indicated which
position in that row. It was discovered
while dismantling the Bridge, that there
were code numbers on each stone when
it was originally built: Rennie must
have used the same system when the sections
left the quarries.
Construction
of a new bridge over the River Thames coincided with
the dismantling of the old London Bridge. The new bridge
was built directly over the old bridge. This new construction
was managed in such a way so that
London never lost one day of traffic while transferring from the old
bridge to the new one.
Reconstructing
the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City was done in the
same manner as the Egyptians built
pyramids. Sand mounds beneath each
arch were carefully formed to the
profile of the original bridge arches,
serving the same function as molds.
When work was completed the sand
was removed. a one-mile channel was
dredged and water was diverted from
the lake, under the Bridge, then
back into the lake.
