The Washington times., 1901-10-27
WIDEN LONDON BRIDGE
nOrmOus Traffic Demands Remod-
cling of Historic Structure.

First One Built More Than n Thous-
and Years AEo-RoOm Requires
the Erection Of n New Viaduct
Quaint Legends and Traditions.
il there should ever come to view the
ruins Of the city of London the New
Zealander dreamed of by Macaulay he
viii not stand on the London Bridge to
Go his musing, that the distinguished
historian had in mind. London Bridge
Is to be remodeled. 1t is to be made
wider to accommodate the immense
throngs Of people whose daily business
compels them to cross the river at that
point. 1t is estimated that the present
structure is capable of serving for the
100000 passengers who use it every
twenty-four hours, but even with this
enormous number provided with a
roadway across the river which is
London" there are left countless thou
sands of others who would use it if the
crowd before them did not take up all
the space
The French loiterer on the boulevards
has a saying that runs to the effect
that Paris is France meaning that
the life of the capital represents, if it
does not embody, the important things
of the whole state. If this is true and
London is England then London Bridge
might very well be taken for the his
tory of England in the illustration of
the growth. changes of government, the
manners and customs of the people
during the thousand and odd years
mi
are involved in more or less doubt as to
the exact date when the first structure |
was erected across the river Thames |
at London, but there seems to be no |
doubt that the evidence is pretty strong |
in favor of the year ss4, though authori-
ties there are who contend that 1t was
fifty years later before a bridge was
really built.
Chronicles of the doings of the people
who lived along the Thames in the
year furthest back tell of how a certain
Danish invader came to take the city,
sailing up the river in the piratical
boats, and these same boats were run
afoul of the bridge. The historian of
the period who relates this incident is
charmingly brief in the story and
leaves the reader to imagine how the
boats happened to run into the bridge.
Whether it was stormy night when
the collision with the structure occur
red or whether it was simply cne IF the
fogs for which the region is famous
that prevented the steersmen from see
ing where they were going is left to
conjecture. Anyhow the story is con-
mid |
knowledge as valuable because it
proves that there was a bridge there at
that time or else they triumphantly de-
mand Of those who contend for a later
date for its building, how could these
boats have run against it.
The annals of the early London, how
ever. have accounts of bridges across
the river nearly 1000 years before this |
time and mention is made in an account
of the invasion of Claudius l, which
IN A, A. D., of the Roman
soldiers crossing on bridge. This was
farther south than the city of London, !
and has nothing to do directly
with an account of London Bridge.
Whether it be settled that the first |
London Bridge was built in 994 or in
L054 the reYerential regard paid to the
structure through a thousand years by
Zach generation as something coming ,
down from remote past, is, as a par I
tial historian and lover of dear old
London" has said, somewhat akin to !
the case OF the sailor who treasured his
iacknife because he had carried it for ,
SO long a time. This regard for its age I