Hampton Court Bridge

Ferry The location of the bridge had been a ferry crossing point since at least the Tudor period. First bridge In 1750, James Clarke obtained an act of Parliament, the '''''' (23 Geo. 2. c. 37), to construct a privately owned bridge at Hampton Court. The first bridge was constructed by Samuel Stevens and Benjamin Ludgator from 1752 until 1753 and opened on 13 December that year. It had seven wooden arches and was built in the Chinoiserie design of the Willow pattern that was popular at the time, attested by two prints made in the year of its opening and the year after. Second bridge This bridge was replaced by a more sturdy eleven-arch wooden bridge in 1778. Third bridge From 1864 to 1865 construction took place on the third bridge on the site. It opened on 10 April 1865. Despite the criticism, it proved extremely lucrative for Allen, earning him over £3,000 annually in tolls until he was bought out in 1876 for £48,048 by a joint committee of the Hampton and Molesey local boards and the Corporation of London, using powers granted by the Kew and Other Bridges Act 1869 (32 & 33 Vict. c. xix). ==The modern bridge==

The modern bridge is the fourth on the site. The bridge has three wide arches, is designed to be able to carry quite heavy motorised road traffic and is constructed of reinforced concrete, faced with red bricks and white Portland stone on its pontoons, dressings, and balustrades. To ensure that traffic could still cross, the new bridge was built a short distance downstream from the old, which was subsequently demolished. The next downstream bridge has considerably older predecessors going back to the early medieval period and is the only other of the reach, Kingston Bridge, London – it is pale brick and stone only and of taller design with two extra arches. The next bridge upstream was replaced in 2013 with a single-span bridge heading up the Thames, a tied arch bridge, Walton Bridge. ==See also==