Lambeth Bridge
Lambeth Bridge is a road traffic and footbridge crossing the River Thames in an east-west direction in central London; the river flows north at the crossing point. Downstream, the next bridge is Westminster Bridge; upstream the next is Vauxhall Bridge.
The first structure was a suspension bridge, 828 feet long, designed by Peter William Barlow and opened as a toll bridge in 1862. See Lambeth Suspension Bridge.
Doubts about its safety, coupled with its awkwardly steep approaches deterring horse-drawn traffic, meant it soon became used almost solely as a pedestrian crossing.
It ceased to be a toll bridge in 1879 when the Metropolitan Board of Works assumed responsibility for its upkeep — by then it was severely corroded.
The current structure, a five-span steel arch, designed by engineer Sir George W. Humphreys and architects Sir Reginald Blomfield and G. Topham Forrest, was built by Dorman, Long and Co and opened on 19 July 1932 by King George V. It formerly carried four lanes of road traffic (now reduced to three lanes).
See Also
Sources of Information
- [1] Wikipedia