London Bridge
Autor: MINDS Santo André | Publicado: 2011-07-16T06:17:00-07:00

London Bridgeis a bridge over the River Thames, connecting the City of London and Southwark, in central London. Situated between Cannon Street Railway Bridge and Tower Bridge, it forms the western end of the Pool of London. On the south side of the bridge are Southwark Cathedral and London Bridge station; on the north side are the Monument to the Great Fire of London and Monument tube station.

It was the only bridge over the Thames downstream from Kingston until Putney Bridge opened in 1729. The current bridge opened on 17 March 1973 and is the latest in a succession of bridges to occupy the spot and claim the name.The bridge carries part of the A3 road, which is maintained by the Greater London Authority;the bridge itself is owned and maintained by Bridge House Estates (see City Bridge Trust), an independent charity overseen by the City of London Corporation. The area between London Bridge and Tower Bridge on the south side of the Thames is a business improvement district (BID) and is managed by Team London Bridge.

The name London Bridge is often mistakenly applied to Tower Bridge, which is the next bridge downstream.












History&nbsp;"Old" (Medieval) London Bridge

An engraving by Claes Van Visscher showing Old London Bridge in 1616, with what is now Southwark Cathedral in the foreground. The spiked heads of executed criminals can be seen above the Southwark gatehouse.

Following the 1136 destruction, some rebuilding was carried out during the reign of Stephen, presumably along the same lines as those instituted by William Rufus. On Henry II's accession, there was an attempt to regularise its maintenance by the institution of a national monastic guild to support this work. There is evidence that there were also unlicensed local guilds in London with the same purpose. In 1163, Peter de Colechurch was appointed as the "Warden of the Brethren of the Bridge", and this seems to have combined all of the preceding ad hoc arrangements. In 1173, Peter soon proposed to replace the timber bridge with a stone one, almost certainly required by the popularity of the Thomas Becket cult and the associated pilgrimage from the bridge to Canterbury. Construction began under de Colechurch's direction in 1176. A chapel was built near the centre of the bridge (dedicated to the recently martyred and canonised Becket who, appropriately, had been born in the parish of St Mary Colechurch). St. Thomas Chapel was grander than hi-town parish churches; it even had a river-level entrance for fishermen and those who taxied passengers across the river. The new bridge took 33 years to complete and was finished in 1209, during the reign of King John. John licensed the building of houses on the bridge, as a direct means of deriving revenue for its maintenance, and it was soon colonised by shops.

The medieval bridge had 19 small arches and a drawbridge with a defensive gatehouse at the southern end. Contemporary pictures show it crowded with buildings of up to seven stories in height. The narrowness of the arches meant that it acted as a partial barrage over the Thames, restricting water flow and thereby making the river more susceptible to freezing over in winter because of the slower currents. The current was further obstructed by the addition of waterwheels (designed by Peter Morice) under the two north arches to drive water pumps, and under the two south arches to power grain mills. This produced ferocious rapids between the piers or "starlings" of the bridge, as the difference between the water levels on each side could be as much as six feet (two metres).Only the brave or foolhardy attempted to "shoot the bridge"—steer a boat between the starlings—and many were drowned trying to do so. As the saying went, the bridge was "for wise men to pass over, and for fools to pass under.