Waterloo Bridge

Waterloo Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London, England between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge. History The first bridge on the site was designed in 1809-10 by John Rennie for the Strand Bridge Company and opened in 1817 as a toll bridge. The granite bridge had nine arches, each of 120 feet (36.6 m) span, separated by double Grecian-Doric stone columns and was 2,456 feet (748.6 m) long, including approaches. Before its opening it was known as 'Strand Bridge'. During the 1840s the bridge gained a reputation as a popular place for suicide attempts. In 1844 Thomas Hood wrote the poem The Bridge of Sighs about the suicide of a prostitute there. Paintings of the bridge were created by the French Impressionist Claude Monet and English Impressionist, John Constable. The bridge was nationalised in 1878 and given to the Metropolitan Board of Works, who removed the toll from it. In June 2012, the bridge was highlighted on the route of Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the Thames. Gallery Related pages List of crossings of the River Thames References Other websites Media related to Waterloo Bridge at Wikimedia Commons Survey of London entry Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine Peter Lind & Company Archived 2008-11-21 at the Wayback Machine Waterloo Bridge (1917) at Structurae Waterloo Bridge (1945) at Structurae