Inception By the late 19th century, the population and commercial development in the
East End of London was increasing, leading to demand for a new river crossing downstream of
London Bridge. A traditional fixed bridge at street level could not be built because it would cut off access by
sailing ships to the port facilities in the
Pool of London between London Bridge and the
Tower of London. A
Special Bridge or Subway Committee chaired by Sir Albert Joseph Altman was formed in December 1875 to find a solution. On 7 December 1876, the Committee presented a report recommending a bridge or subway to the east of London Bridge should be constructed, funds permitting. More than fifty designs were submitted, including one from civil engineer Sir
Joseph Bazalgette, which was rejected because of a lack of sufficient headroom. None of the designs gained support and it was not until 24 July 1884 that the Bridge House Estates Committee brought forward a report that proposed "a low level bridge, with mechanical opening or openings" be built. • The bridge was to be opened at any time for the passage of any vessels, regardless of any delays to land traffic.
Barry later noted that "at one time it was intended that the new works should be made suitable for the mounting of guns and for military occupation." But that "The latter idea was afterwards to a great extent discarded."
Construction Construction was funded by the
City Bridge Foundation, a charity established in 1282 for maintenance of London Bridge that subsequently expanded to cover Tower Bridge,
Blackfriars Bridge,
Southwark Bridge and the
Millennium Bridge. Sir
John Wolfe Barry was appointed engineer and Sir
Horace Jones the architect (who, as the City Architect, was also one of the judges). Jones and Barry designed a bridge with two
bridge towers built on piers. The central
span was split into two equal bascules or leaves, which could be raised to allow river traffic to pass. The two side spans were suspension bridges, with rods anchored both at the
abutments and through rods contained in the bridge's upper walkways. Construction – overseen by
Edward Cruttwell – started on 22 April 1886, The work was divided into eight contracts. Mr (later Sir)
John Jackson won three of those contracts and was responsible for the northern approach to the bridge (which started in February 1887), the foundations of the piers and the abutments of the bridge (started February 1887), and the cast iron parapet for the northern approach (December 1887) at a total accepted tender cost of £189,732; Sir W. G.
Armstrong, Mitchell, and Co. Ltd, was awarded the hydraulics contract for which they tendered £85,232 (December 1887); Mr
William Webster was responsible for the southern approach at £38,383 (July 1888);
Sir William Arrol & Co. had the contract for the metalwork of the superstructure at £337,113 (May 1889), which amounted to about 12,100 tons; Cruttwell was the resident engineer throughout the period of construction (and remained associated with the bridge until his death in 1933). He noted that there were "only" ten fatal accidents during the construction: four in sinking the foundations, one on the approaches, and the remaining five on the superstructure. More than of steel were used in the framework for the towers and walkways, which were then clad in
Cornish granite and
Portland stone to protect the underlying steelwork, and achieve the stipulation that the bridge should fit architecturally with the Tower of London. Jones died in 1887, and Barry took over as architect. Barry later summarised the contributions to the construction of Tower Bridge: "Mr Fyson, who undertook much of the preparation of the detailed drawings; Mr Stevenson, who had been his assistant with the architectural work; and...most of all...Mr Cruttwell, the Resident Engineer, and Mr Homfray, who superintended the machinery." In addition to the official opening, the City of London Corporation gave an "entertainment", at a cost of £300, to 1,200 workmen and their wives. Edward Cruttwell, who had been in charge of the building of the bridge from the beginning, presided. After dinner, each workman was presented with a commemorative pipe and packet of tobacco, and each workman's wife with a box of sweetmeats. The walkway reopened in 1982 as part of the Tower Bridge Exhibition.
20th century on London, 7 September 1940 of
No. 201 Squadron RAF moored at Tower Bridge during the 1956 commemoration of the
Battle of Britain After its opening, the City of London provided some funding to the police to pay for the policing of Tower Bridge, under an informal "compact". The Corporation of London (Blackfriars and other Bridges) Act 1906 (6 EdwVII c.clxxx) formally placed the bridge under the City of London's policing jurisdiction. During the
Second World War, Tower Bridge was seen as a major transport link to the
Port of London, and consequently was a target for enemy action. In 1940, the high-level span took a direct hit, severing the hydraulic mechanism and taking the bridge out of action. In April 1941, a
parachute mine exploded close to the bridge, causing serious damage to the bascule, towers, and engine room. In 1942, a third engine was installed in case the existing ones were damaged by enemy action. It was a 150
hp horizontal cross-compound engine, built by
Vickers Armstrong Ltd. at their Elswick works in Newcastle upon Tyne. It was fitted with a
flywheel having a diameter and weighing 9 tons, and was governed to a speed of 30 rpm. The engine became redundant when the rest of the system was modernised in 1974 and was donated to the
Forncett Industrial Steam Museum by the
City of London Corporation. The southern section of the bridge, in the
London Borough of Southwark, was
Grade I listed on 6 December 1949. The remainder of the bridge, in the
London Borough of Tower Hamlets, was listed on 27 September 1973. On 30 December 1952, a number 78 double-decker bus was crossing Tower Bridge. The process of stopping traffic when the bridge was getting raised failed while a relief watchman was on duty. The bus was near the edge of the south bascule when it started to rise. Driver
Albert Edward Gunter (1906–1968) made a split-second decision to accelerate the bus, clearing a 1.8 m (6 ft) drop onto the north bascule, which had not started to rise. The conductor broke his leg and twelve of the twenty passengers aboard received minor injuries. The driver was later rewarded with a £10 bonus (about £246.81 in 2025) for his quick thinking. In 1960, the upper bridges of the two pedestrian walkways that connected the two main towers were converted from being
cantilever bridges, projecting horizontally out into space, to
suspension bridges when suspension cables were added. This was to reinforce the strength of the walkways. In 1974, the original operating mechanism was largely replaced by a new electro-hydraulic drive system, designed by Geoffrey Beresford Hartwell, of BHA Cromwell House, with the original final
pinions driven by modern
hydraulic motors. In 1982, the Tower Bridge Exhibition opened, housed in the bridge's twin towers, the long-closed high-level walkways, and the Victorian engine rooms. The latter still houses the original steam engines and some of the original
hydraulic machinery.
21st century The bridge closed for a month in 2000 to repair the bascules and perform other maintenance. A computer system was installed to control the raising and lowering of the bascules remotely. However, the system proved unreliable, resulting in the bridge being stuck in the open or closed positions on several occasions during 2005 until its sensors were replaced. Each section was enshrouded in scaffolding and plastic sheeting to prevent the old paint falling into the Thames and causing pollution. Starting in mid-2008, contractors worked on a quarter of the bridge at a time to minimise disruption, but some road closures were inevitable. The completed work should stand for 25 years. The renovation of the walkway interior was completed in mid-2009. The renovation of the four suspension chains was completed in March 2010 using a state-of-the-art coating system requiring up to six different layers of paint. in 2025, with one of the
ravens of the Tower of London perched near the outer walls On 8 July 2012, as part of the
London Olympics, the west walkway was transformed into a Live Music Sculpture by the British composer Samuel Bordoli. Thirty classical musicians were arranged along the length of the bridge above the Thames behind the Olympic rings. The sound travelled backward and forwards along the walkway, echoing the structure of the bridge. Following the Olympics, the rings were removed from Tower Bridge and replaced by the
emblem of the
Paralympic Games for the
2012 Summer Paralympics. , in Summer 2025 In 2016, Tower Bridge was closed to all road traffic from 1 October to 30 December. This was to allow structural maintenance work to take place on the timber decking, lifting mechanism and waterproofing the brick arches on the bridge's approaches. During this, the bridge was still open to waterborne traffic. It was open to pedestrians for all but three weekends when a free ferry service was in operation. == Design ==