The Open Guide to London: the free London guide

Photo: blech.

Tower Bridge is often mistaken for London Bridge since it is the most famous bridge crossing the Thames.

Its location - the east side of the City of London, and thus nearer to the mouth of the river - means that builders had the problem of how to allow ships to go underneath. Their solution, chosen in 1884 after eight years of discussion, was by Horace Jones, the City Architect, in collaboration with John Wolfe Barry, and it was a combination bridge which uses two “see-saw” roads which can be lifted to allow large ships underneath. (The technical name for this kind of bridge is a “bascule” bridge, which is indeed French for see-saw.) The hydraulics that move the bascules were steam-driven until 1976.

Tours are available around the bridge from the Tower Bridge Experience.

• More photos by blech:
  • tower bridge lit from se
  • tower bridge dawn clouds
  • boat through tower bridge (the “see-saw” roads lifted up to allow a boat through)
  • tower bridge from gla