page_title: Chelsea Bridge
section_title: Design and construction
hierarchical_section_title: Chelsea Bridge / Victoria Bridge (Old Chelsea Bridge) / Design and construction
caption_attribution_description: Interlingua: Le famose scuto celtic trovate a Battersea. Français&#160;: Le bouclier celtique célèbre trouvée à Battersea. English: The famous Celtic shield found at Battersea. BM page
context_page_description: Chelsea Bridge is a bridge over the River Thames in west London, connecting Chelsea on the north bank to Battersea on the south bank, and split between the City of Westminster, the London Borough of Wandsworth and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. There have been two Chelsea Bridges, on the site of what was an ancient ford.
  The first Chelsea Bridge was proposed in the 1840s as part of a major development of marshlands on the south bank of the Thames into the new Battersea Park. It was a suspension bridge intended to provide convenient access from the densely populated north bank to the new park. Although built and operated by the government, tolls were charged initially in an effort to recoup the cost of the bridge. Work on the nearby Chelsea Embankment delayed construction and so the bridge, initially called Victoria Bridge, did not open until 1858. Although well-received architecturally, as a toll bridge it was unpopular with the public, and Parliament felt obliged to make it toll-free on Sundays. The bridge was less of a commercial success than had been anticipated, partly because of competition from the newly built Albert Bridge nearby.
context_section_description: Page's design was typical of suspension bridges of the period, and consisted of a wrought iron deck and four 97-foot (30 m) cast iron towers supporting chains, which in turn supported the weight of the deck. The towers rested on a pair of timber and cast iron piers. The towers passed through the deck, meaning that between the towers the road was seven feet (2.1 m) narrower than on the rest of the bridge. Although work had begun in 1851 delays in the closure of the Chelsea Waterworks, which only completed its relocation to Seething Wells in 1856, caused lengthy delays to the project, and the Edinburgh-made ironwork was only transported to the site in 1856.
  Victoria Bridge was 703 feet (214 m) long with a central span of 333 feet (101 m), and the roadway was 32 feet (9.8 m) wide with a 7-foot-6-inch (2.29 m) footpath on either side, making a total width of 47 feet (14 m). Large lamps were set at the tops of the four towers, which were only to be lit when Queen Victoria was spending the night in London. The central span was inscribed with the date of construction and the words "Gloria Deo in Excelsis" ("Glory to God in the Highest"). It took seven years to build, at a total cost of £90,000 (about £9.12 million in 2020). The controversial tolls were collected from octagonal stone tollhouses at each end of the bridge.
  As with the earlier construction of nearby Battersea Bridge, during excavations workers found large quantities of Roman and Celtic weapons and skeletons in the riverbed, leading many historians to conclude that the area was the site of Julius Caesar's crossing of the Thames during the 54 BC invasion of Britain. The most significant item found was the Celtic La Tène style bronze and enamel Battersea Shield, one of the most important pieces of Celtic military equipment found in Britain, recovered from the riverbed during dredging for the piers.
caption: The Battersea Shield
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