London Bridge, London

Architect	Lord Holford and engineers Mott, Hay and Anderson
Date Built	Opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 17 March 1973
Location	It carries 5 lanes of the A3 across the Thames in central London
Description
The present London Bridge is the latest in a long line of bridges that have spanned the Thames in the vicinity.  The first was built by the Romans and that was followed by a number of wooden structures.  In 1831 King William IV and Queen Adelaide opened a 283 metre long version of London Bridge, designed by John Rennie, that was built of Haytor granite.  It carried increasing volumes of traffic across the river for over 130 years but although the bridge wasn't "falling down", as in the old children's song, it was sinking.  It was sinking into the river bed at a rate of about an inch every eight years and by 1924 the east side of the bridge was measurably lower than the west side.  The decision was taken to replace the bridge and in 1967 Rennie's bridge was put up for sale.  It sold for nearly $2.5 million dollars and was dismantled, shipped via the Panama Canal to California and reassembled at Lake Havasu City in Arizona.  Today's London Bridge, seen above and below, was designed by the architect Lord Holford and engineers Mott, Hay and Anderson.  It is made of three spans of pre-stressed-concrete box girders that are 283 m long. It cost £4 million to build and was opened by the Queen on March 17,  1973. In 1984 the British Warship HMS Jupiter collided with the bridge during a visit to the capital.  The incident resulted in damage to both the ship and the bridge.  Ironically, in 2014 a driver lost control of his truck and damaged 40 feet of granite railings on the former London Bridge in Havasu City. As you can see on the images above and below, the bridge has two lanes on the west side and three on the east with a median separating them.  It also has wide footpaths on either side. The building to the right of the bridge in the image below, is called Adelaide House, apparently in honour of Queen Adelaide who was present at the opening of Rennie's bridge.

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