London Bridge#New London Bridge

The abutments of modern London Bridge rest several metres above natural embankments of gravel, sand and clay. From the late Neolithic era the southern embankment formed a natural causeway above the surrounding swamp and marsh of the river's estuary; the northern ascended to higher ground at the present site of Cornhill. Between the embankments, the River Thames could have been crossed by ford when the tide was low, or ferry when it was high. Both embankments, particularly the northern, would have offered stable beachheads for boat traffic up and downstream – the Thames and its estuary were a major inland and Continental trade route from at least the 9th century BC.Merrifield, Ralph, London, City of the Romans, University of California Press, 1983, pp. 1–4. The terraces were formed by glacial sediment towards the end of the last Ice Age.

There is archaeological evidence for scattered Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age settlement nearby, but until a bridge was built there, London did not exist.D. Riley, in Burland, J.B., Standing, J.R., Jardine, F.M., Building Response to Tunnelling: Case Studies from Construction of the Jubilee line Extension, London, Volume 1, Thomas Telford, 2001, pp. 103 – 104. A few miles upstream, beyond the river's upper tidal reach, two ancient fords were in use. These were apparently aligned with the course of Watling Street, which led into the heartlands of the Catuvellauni, Britain's most powerful tribe at the time of Caesar's invasion of 54 BC. Some time before Claudius's conquest of AD 43, power shifted to the Trinovantes, who held the region northeast of the Thames Estuary from a capital at Camulodunum, nowadays Colchester in Essex. Claudius imposed a major colonia at Camulodunum, and made it the capital city of the new Roman province of Britannia. The first London Bridge was built by the Romans as part of their road-building programme, to help consolidate their conquest.The site of the new bridge determined the location of London itself. The alignment of Watling Street with the ford at Westminster (crossed via Thorney Island) is the basis for a mooted earlier Roman "London", sited in the vicinity of Park Lane. See Margary, Ivan D., Roman Roads in Britain, Vol. 1, South of the Foss Way – Bristol Channel, Phoenix House Lts, London, 1955, pp. 46 – 47.

It is possible that Roman military engineers built a pontoon type bridge at the site during the conquest period (AD{{nbsp}}43). A bridge of any kind would have given a rapid overland shortcut to Camulodunum from the southern and Kentish ports, along the Roman roads of Stane Street and Watling Street (now the A2). The Roman roads leading to and from London were probably built around AD{{nbsp}}50, and the river-crossing was possibly served by a permanent timber bridge.{{Cite web |title=Engineering Timelines - Roman Bridge, London, site of |url=http://engineering-timelines.com/scripts/engineeringItem.asp?id=662 |access-date=25 August 2022 |website=engineering-timelines.com}} On the relatively high, dry ground at the northern end of the bridge, a small, opportunistic trading and shipping settlement took root and grew into the town of Londinium.Margary, Ivan D., Roman Roads in Britain, Vol. 1, South of the Foss Way – Bristol Channel, Phoenix House Lts, London, 1955, pp. 46–48.

A smaller settlement developed at the southern end of the bridge, in the area now known as Southwark. The bridge may have been destroyed along with the town in the Boudican revolt (AD 60), but Londinium was rebuilt and eventually, became the administrative and mercantile capital of Roman Britain. The bridge offered uninterrupted, mass movement of foot, horse, and wheeled traffic across the Thames, linking four major arterial road systems north of the Thames with four to the south. Just downstream of the bridge were substantial quays and depots, convenient to seagoing trade between Britain and the rest of the Roman Empire.Jones, B., and Mattingly, D., An Atlas of Roman Britain, Blackwell, 1990, pp. 168–172.Merrifield, Ralph, London, City of the Romans, University of California Press, 1983, p. 31.

With the end of Roman rule in Britain in the early 5th century, Londinium was gradually abandoned and the bridge fell into disrepair. In the Anglo-Saxon period, the river became a boundary between the emergent, mutually hostile kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex. By the late 9th century, Danish invasions prompted at least a partial reoccupation of the site by the Saxons. The bridge may have been rebuilt by Alfred the Great soon after the Battle of Edington as part of Alfred's redevelopment of the area in his system of burhs,Jeremy Haslam, 'The Development of London by King Alfred: A Reassessment'; Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, 61 (2010), 109–44. Retrieved 2 August 2014 or it may have been rebuilt around 990 under the Saxon king Æthelred the Unready to hasten his troop movements against Sweyn Forkbeard, father of Cnut the Great. A skaldic tradition describes the bridge's destruction in 1014 by Æthelred's ally Olaf,{{citation|author=Snorri Sturluson|author-link=Snorri Sturluson|title=Heimskringla|date=c. 1230}}. There is no reference to this event in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. See: {{cite journal|first1=Jan Ragnar|last1=Hagland|first2=Bruce|last2=Watson|url=http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/arch-457-1/dissemination/pdf/vol10/vol10_12/10_12_328_333.pdf|title=Fact or folklore: the Viking attack on London Bridge|journal=London Archaeologist|volume=12|date=Spring 2005|pages=328–33}} to divide the Danish forces who held both the walled City of London and Southwark. The earliest contemporary written reference to a Saxon bridge is {{Circa|1016}}, when chroniclers mention how Cnut's ships bypassed the crossing during his war to regain the throne from Edmund Ironside.See Battle of Brentford (1016)

Following the Norman conquest in 1066, King William I rebuilt the bridge. It was repaired or replaced by King William II, destroyed by fire in 1136, and rebuilt in the reign of Stephen. Henry II created a monastic guild, the "Brethren of the Bridge", to oversee all work on London Bridge. In 1163, Peter of Colechurch, chaplain and warden of the bridge and its brethren, supervised the bridge's last rebuilding in timber.Thornbury, Walter, Old and New London, 1872, vol.2, p.10

File:London Bridge (1616) by Claes Van Visscher.jpg 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.]]

After the murder of his former friend and later opponent Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, the penitent King Henry II commissioned a new stone bridge in place of the old, with a chapel at its centre dedicated to Becket as martyr. The archbishop had been a native Londoner, born at Cheapside, and a popular figure. The Chapel of St Thomas on the Bridge became the official start of pilgrimage to his Canterbury shrine; it was grander than some town parish churches, and had an additional river-level entrance for fishermen and ferrymen. Building work began in 1176, supervised by Peter of Colechurch. The costs would have been enormous; Henry's attempt to meet them with taxes on wool and sheepskins probably gave rise to a later legend that London Bridge was built on wool packs.

In 1202, before Colechurch's death, Isembert, a French monk who was renowned as a bridge builder, was appointed by King John to complete the project. Construction was not finished until 1209. There were houses on the bridge from the start; this was a normal way of paying for the maintenance of a bridge, though in this case it had to be supplemented by other rents and by tolls. From 1282 two bridge wardens were responsible for maintaining the bridge, heading the organization known as the Bridge House. The only two collapses occurred when maintenance had been neglected, in 1281 (five arches) and 1437 (two arches). In 1212, perhaps the greatest of the early fires of London broke out, spreading as far as the chapel and trapping many people.

The bridge was about {{convert|926|ft|m|abbr=off}} long, and had nineteen piers, supported by timber piles. The piers were linked above by nineteen arches and a wooden drawbridge. Above and below the water-level, the piers were enclosed and protected by 'starlings', supported by deeper piles than the piers themselves. The bridge, including the part occupied by houses, was from {{convert|20|to|24|ft|metre|abbr=off}} wide. The roadway was mostly around {{convert|15|ft|m|abbr=off}} wide, varying from about 14 feet to 16 feet, except that it was narrower at defensive features (the stone gate, the drawbridge and the drawbridge tower) and wider south of the stone gate. The houses occupied only a few feet on each side of the bridge. They received their main support either from the piers, which extended well beyond the bridge itself from west to east, or from 'hammer beams' laid from pier to pier parallel to the bridge. It was the length of the piers which made it possible to build quite large houses, up to {{convert|34|ft|m|abbr=off}} deep.{{Cite book|last=Gerhold|title=London Bridge and its Houses|pages=4, 11–12, 16}}

The numerous starlings restricted the river's tidal ebb and flow. The difference in water levels on the two sides of the bridge could be as much as {{convert|6|ft|m}}, producing ferocious rapids between the piers resembling a weir.Pierce, p.45 and Jackson, p.77 Only the brave or foolhardy attempted to "shoot the bridge" – steer a boat between the starlings when in flood – and some were drowned in the attempt. The bridge was "for wise men to pass over, and for fools to pass under."Rev. John Ray, "Book of Proverbs", 1670, cited in Jackson, p.77 The restricted flow also meant that in hard winters the river upstream was more susceptible to freezing.

The number of houses on the bridge reached its maximum in the late fourteenth century, when there were 140. Subsequently, many of the houses, originally only 10 to 11 feet wide, were merged, so that by 1605 there were 91. Originally they are likely to have had only two storeys, but they were gradually enlarged. In the seventeenth century, when there are detailed descriptions of them, almost all had four or five storeys (counting the garrets as a storey); three houses had six storeys. Two-thirds of the houses were rebuilt from 1477 to 1548. In the seventeenth century, the usual plan was a shop on the ground floor, a hall and often a chamber on the first floor, a kitchen and usually a chamber and a waterhouse (for hauling up water in buckets) on the second floor, and chambers and garrets above. Approximately every other house shared in a 'cross building' above the roadway, linking the houses either side and extending from the first floor upwards.{{Cite book|last=Gerhold|title=London Bridge and its Houses|pages=13, 19–21, 36, 45–46}}

File:The Frozen Thames 1677 by Abraham Hondius.jpg (1677) by Abraham Hondius in the Museum of London, showing Old London Bridge and Southwark Cathedral (St Saviours) at right]]

All the houses were shops, and the bridge was one of the City of London's four or five main shopping streets. There seems to have been a deliberate attempt to attract the more prestigious trades. In the late fourteenth century more than four-fifths of the shopkeepers were haberdashers, glovers, cutlers, bowyers and fletchers or from related trades. By 1600 all of these had dwindled except the haberdashers, and the spaces were filled by additional haberdashers, by traders selling textiles and by grocers. From the late seventeenth century there was a greater variety of trades, including metalworkers such as pinmakers and needle makers, sellers of durable goods such as trunks and brushes, booksellers and stationers.{{Cite book|last=Gerhold|title=London Bridge and its Houses|pages=60–75}}

The three major buildings on the bridge were the chapel, the drawbridge tower and the stone gate, all of which seem to have been present soon after the bridge's construction. The chapel was last rebuilt in 1387–1396, by Henry Yevele, master mason to the king. Following the Reformation, it was converted into a house in 1553. The drawbridge tower was where the severed heads of traitors were exhibited. The drawbridge ceased to be opened in the 1470s and in 1577–1579 the tower was replaced by Nonsuch House—a pair of magnificent houses. Its architect was Lewis Stockett, Surveyor of the Queen's Works, who gave it the second classical facade in London (after Somerset House in the Strand). The stone gate was last rebuilt in the 1470s, and later took over the function of displaying the heads of traitors.{{Cite book|last=Gerhold|title=London Bridge and its Houses|pages=26–32}} The heads were dipped in tar and boiled to preserve them against the elements, and were impaled on pikes.{{cite book|last=Dunton|first=Larkin|url=https://archive.org/details/worldanditspeop05duntgoog|title=The World and Its People|publisher=Silver, Burdett|year=1896|page=[https://archive.org/details/worldanditspeop05duntgoog/page/n31 23]}} The head of William Wallace was the first recorded as appearing, in 1305, starting a long tradition. Other famous heads on pikes included those of Jack Cade in 1450, Thomas More in 1535, Bishop John Fisher in the same year, and Thomas Cromwell in 1540. In 1598, a German visitor to London, Paul Hentzner, counted over 30 heads on the bridge:{{cite web|title=Vision of Britain – Paul Hentzner – Arrival and London|url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/text/chap_page.jsp?t_id=Hentzner&c_id=1|website=www.visionofbritain.org.uk}}

{{blockquote|On the south is a bridge of stone eight hundred feet in length, of wonderful work; it is supported upon twenty piers of square stone, sixty feet high and thirty broad, joined by arches of about twenty feet diameter. The whole is covered on each side with houses so disposed as to have the appearance of a continued street, not at all of a bridge. Upon this is built a tower, on whose top the heads of such as have been executed for high treason are placed on iron spikes: we counted above thirty.}}

The last head was installed in 1661;{{Cite journal|last=Home|title=Old London Bridge|journal=Nature|year=1932|volume=129|issue=3244|pages=232|doi=10.1038/129016c0|bibcode=1932Natur.129S..16.|s2cid=4112097|doi-access=free}} subsequently heads were placed on Temple Bar instead, until the practice ceased.Timbs, John. Curiosities of London. p.705, 1885. Available: books.google.com. Accessed: 29 September 2013

There were two multi-seated public latrines, but they seem to have been at the two ends of the bridge, possibly on the riverbank. The one at the north end had two entrances in 1306. In 1481, one of the latrines fell into the Thames and five men were drowned. Neither of the latrines is recorded after 1591.Gerhold, London Bridge and its Houses, pp. 32-3; Sabine, Ernest L., "Latrines and Cesspools of Mediaeval London," Speculum, Vol. 9, No. 3 (Jul. 1934), pp. 305–306, 315. Earliest evidence for the multi-seated public latrine is from a court case of 1306.

In 1578–1582 a Dutchman, Peter Morris, created a waterworks at the north end of the bridge. Water wheels under the two northernmost arches drove pumps that raised water to the top of a tower, from which wooden pipes conveyed it into the city. In 1591 water wheels were installed at the south end of the bridge to grind corn.{{Cite book|last=Jackson|title=London Bridge|pages=30–31}}

{{wide image|Claude de Jongh - View of London Bridge - Google Art Project bridge.jpg|960px|Detail of Old London Bridge on the 1632 oil painting View of London Bridge by Claude de Jongh, in the Yale Center for British Art}}

File:London Bridge Fire of 1632.jpg

In 1633 fire destroyed the houses on the northern part of the bridge. The gap was only partly filled by new houses, with the result that there was a firebreak that prevented the Great Fire of London (1666) spreading to the rest of the bridge and to Southwark. The Great Fire destroyed the bridge's waterwheels, preventing them from pumping water to fight the fire. For nearly 20 years, only sheds replaced the burnt buildings. They were replaced In the 1680s, when almost all the houses on the bridge were rebuilt. The roadway was widened to {{convert|20|ft|m|abbr=off}} by setting the houses further back, and was increased in height from one storey to two. The new houses extended further back over the river, which would cause trouble later.

{{wide image|London-bridge-1682.jpg|850px|align-cap=center|Drawing of London Bridge from a 1682 panorama|box width|center|alt=alt text}}

File:London Bridge before the alteration in 1757 by Samuel Scott.png]]

In 1695, the bridge had 551 inhabitants. From 1670, attempts were made to keep traffic in each direction to one side, at first through a keep-right policy and from 1722, through a keep-left policy.{{Cite book|last=Gerhold|title=London Bridge and its Houses|pages=57, 82–90}} This has been suggested as one possible origin for the practice of traffic in Britain driving on the left.Ways of the World: A History of the World's Roads and of the Vehicles That Used Them, M. G. Lay & James E. Vance, Rutgers University Press 1992, p. 199.

{{Infobox UK legislation

| short_title = London Bridge Act 1756

| type = Act

| parliament = Parliament of Great Britain

| long_title = An Act to improve, widen, and enlarge, the Passage over and through London Bridge.

| year = 1756

| citation = 29 Geo. 2. c. 40

| introduced_commons =

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| royal_assent = 27 May 1756

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A fire in September 1725 destroyed all the houses south of the stone gate; they were rebuilt.{{Cite book|last=Gerhold|title=London Bridge and its Houses|pages=93}} The last houses to be built on the bridge were designed by George Dance the Elder in 1745,Pierce 2001, pp. 235–236 but these buildings had begun to subside within a decade.Pierce 2001, p. 252 The {{visible anchor|London Bridge Act 1756}} (29 Geo. 2. c. 40) gave the City Corporation the power to purchase all the properties on the bridge so that they could be demolished and the bridge improved. While this work was underway, a temporary wooden bridge was constructed to the west of London Bridge. It opened in October 1757 but caught fire and collapsed in the following April. The old bridge was reopened until a new wooden construction could be completed a year later.Pierce 2001, p. 252–256 To help improve navigation under the bridge, its two centre arches were replaced by a single wider span, the Great Arch, in 1759.

Demolition of the houses was completed in 1761 and the last tenant departed after some 550 years of housing on the bridge.Gerhold, London Bridge and its Houses, pp. 100–101. Under the supervision of Dance the Elder, the roadway was widened to {{convert|46|ft|m}}Pierce 2001, p. 260 and a balustrade was added "in the Gothic taste" together with 14 stone alcoves for pedestrians to shelter in.Pierce 2001, pp. 261–263 However, the creation of the Great Arch had weakened the rest of the structure and constant expensive repairs were required in the following decades; this, combined with congestion both on and under bridge, often leading to fatal accidents, resulted in public pressure for a modern replacement.Pierce 2001, p. 278–279

London Bridge Pugh.jpg|London Bridge from Pepper Alley Stairs by Herbert Pugh, showing the appearance of London Bridge after 1762, with the new "Great Arch" at the centre

File:Joseph Mallord William Turner 065.jpg|Old London Bridge by J. M. W. Turner, showing the new balustrade and the back of one of the pedestrian alcoves

London bridge alcove.jpg|One of the pedestrian alcoves from the 1762 renovation, now in Victoria Park, Tower Hamlets – a similar alcove from the same source can be seen at the Guy's Campus of King's College London

Old London Bridge balustrade at Gilwell Park.jpg|A section of balustrade from London Bridge, now at Gilwell Park in Essex

File:The King's Arms (7327432882).jpg|A relief of the Hanoverian Royal Arms from a gateway over the old London Bridge now forms part of the façade of the King's Arms pub, Southwark

The Demolition of Old London Bridge, 1832, Guildhall Gallery, London.JPG|The Demolition of Old London Bridge, 1832, Guildhall Gallery, London

{{multiple image

| header =

| align =

| width = 200

| caption_align = center

| image1 = ‘Old London Bridge - sketched on the spot’, William Alfred Delamotte - 30 March 1832 (cropped).jpg

| caption1 = The remains of the bridge, as sketched by William Alfred Delamotte on 30 March 1832

| image2 = Clarkson Stanfield (1793-1867) - The Opening of New London Bridge, 1 August 1831 - RCIN 404711 - Royal Collection.jpg

| caption2 = The Opening of New London Bridge by Clarkson Stanfield, 1832}}

File:New London Bridge under construction (1826).jpg, 1826]]

In 1799, a competition was opened to design a replacement for the medieval bridge. Entrants included Thomas Telford; he proposed a single iron arch span of {{convert|600|ft|m|-1}}, with {{convert|65|ft|m|-1}} centre clearance beneath it for masted river traffic. His design was accepted as safe and practicable, following expert testimony.{{Cite journal|date=1857|title=Article on Iron Bridges|journal=Encyclopedia Britannica}} Preliminary surveys and works were begun, but Telford's design required exceptionally wide approaches and the extensive use of multiple, steeply inclined planes, which would have required the purchase and demolition of valuable adjacent properties.{{Cite book|title=The Life of Thomas Telford|last=Smiles|first=Samuel|date=October 2001|isbn=1404314857}}

A more conventional design of five stone arches, by John Rennie, was chosen instead. It was built {{convert|100|ft|m|0}} west (upstream) of the original site by Jolliffe and Banks of Merstham, Surrey,A fragment from the old bridge is set into the tower arch inside St Katharine's Church, Merstham. under the supervision of Rennie's son. Work began in 1824 and the foundation stone was laid, in the southern coffer dam, on 15 June 1825.{{citation needed|date=February 2013}}

File:London Bridge (Cornell University Library).jpg

The old bridge continued in use while the new bridge was being built, and was demolished after the latter opened in 1831. New approach roads had to be built, which cost three times as much as the bridge itself. The total costs, around £2.5 million (£{{Formatprice|{{Inflation|UK|2500000|1831}}}} in {{Inflation-year|UK}}),{{Inflation-fn|UK}} were shared by the British Government and the Corporation of London.

Rennie's bridge was {{convert|928|ft|m|0}} long and {{convert|49|ft|m|0}} wide, constructed from Haytor granite. The official opening took place on 1 August 1831; King William IV and Queen Adelaide attended a banquet in a pavilion erected on the bridge. The northern approach road, King William Street, was renamed after the monarch and a statue of the king subsequently installed.

File:London bridge 1927.jpg

In 1896 the bridge was the busiest point in London, and one of its most congested; 8,000 pedestrians and 900 vehicles crossed every hour. To designs by engineer Edward Cruttwell,{{Cite web |title=About Edward Cruttwell |url=https://heritage.towerbridge.org.uk/about-edward-cruttwell/ |access-date=2024-08-27 |website=Heritage - Tower Bridge |language=en-GB}}{{Cite news |date=21 December 1900 |title=The Widening of London Bridge |work=The Engineer |pages=613–614}} it was widened by {{convert|13|ft}}, using granite corbels.A dozen granite corbels prepared for this widening went unused, and still lie near Swelltor Quarry on the disused railway track a couple of miles south of Princetown on Dartmoor. Subsequent surveys showed that the bridge was sinking an inch (about 2.5 cm) every eight years, and by 1924 the east side had sunk some three to four inches (about 9 cm) lower than the west side. The bridge would have to be removed and replaced.

{{main|London Bridge (Lake Havasu City)}}

File:London-Bridge-March-1971.jpg's New London Bridge during its reconstruction at Lake Havasu City, Arizona, March 1971]]

Common Council of the City of London member Ivan Luckin put forward the idea of selling the bridge, and recalled: "They all thought I was completely crazy when I suggested we should sell London Bridge when it needed replacing."{{Cite web|date=27 March 2002|title=How London Bridge was sold to the States|url=https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/169982.how-london-bridge-was-sold-to-the-states/|access-date=1 March 2021|website=Watford Observer|language=en}} Subsequently, in 1968, Council placed the bridge on the market and began to look for potential buyers. On 18 April 1968, Rennie's bridge was purchased by the Missourian entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch of McCulloch Oil for US$2,460,000. The claim that McCulloch believed mistakenly that he was buying the more impressive Tower Bridge was denied by Luckin in a newspaper interview.{{Cite web|url=http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/archive/2002/03/27/Hertfordshire+Archive/5754223.How_London_Bridge_was_sold_to_the_States/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120116071636/http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/archive/2002/03/27/Hertfordshire+Archive/5754223.How_London_Bridge_was_sold_to_the_States/|url-status=dead|archive-date=16 January 2012|title=How London Bridge was sold to the States (From This Is Local London)|date=16 January 2012}} Before the bridge was taken apart, each granite facing block was marked for later reassembly.File:The London Bridge in Lake Havasu City (27698161465).jpg The blocks were taken to Merrivale Quarry at Princetown in Devon, where {{convert|15|to|20|cm|in|round=0.5|abbr=on}} were sliced off the inner faces of many, to facilitate their fixing.{{cite web|title=London Bridge is still here! – 21 December 1995 – Contract Journal|url=http://www.contractjournal.com/Articles/1995/12/21/27226/london-bridge-is-still-here.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506144638/http://www.contractjournal.com/Articles/1995/12/21/27226/london-bridge-is-still-here.html|archive-date=6 May 2008}} (Stones left behind were sold in an online auction when the quarry was abandoned and flooded in 2003.{{cite web|title=Merrivale Quarry, Whitchurch, Tavistock District, Devon, England, UK|url=http://www.mindat.org/loc-1521.html|website=www.mindat.org}}) 10,000 tons of granite blocks were shipped via the Panama Canal to California, then trucked from Long Beach to Arizona. They were used to face a new, purpose-built hollow core steel-reinforced concrete structure, ensuring the bridge would support the weight of modern traffic.

{{cite book

|last=Elborough |first=Travis

|year=2013

|title=London Bridge in America: The tall story of a transatlantic crossing

|pages=211–212

|publisher=Random House

|isbn=978-1448181674

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EW_YhRYKxlcC&pg=PA211

|access-date=30 July 2014

}}

The bridge was reconstructed by Sundt Construction at Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and was re-dedicated on 10 October 1971 in a ceremony attended by London's Lord Mayor and celebrities. The bridge carries the McCulloch Boulevard and spans the Bridgewater Channel, an artificial, navigable waterway that leads from the Uptown area of Lake Havasu City.

{{cite book

|first=Frederic B. |last=Wildfang

|year=2005

|title=Lake Havasu City

|pages=105–122

|publisher=Arcadia Publishing

|place=Chicago, IL

|isbn=978-0738530123

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t_5bdQIrEzQC&pg=PA107

|access-date=2 May 2013

}}

{{Infobox UK legislation

| short_title = London Bridge Act 1967

| type = Act

| parliament = Parliament of the United Kingdom

| long_title = An Act to empower the Corporation of London to reconstruct London Bridge, to construct other works and to acquire lands compulsorily; and for other purposes.

| year = 1967

| citation = 1967 c. i

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| territorial_extent =

| royal_assent = 16 February 1967

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The current London Bridge was designed by architect Lord Holford and engineers Mott, Hay and Anderson.{{cite web |url=http://www.buildingtalk.com/news/cyl/cyl123.html |work=Building talk |title=Carillion accepts award for London Bridge project |date=14 November 2007 |access-date=14 April 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120420230132/http://www.buildingtalk.com/news/cyl/cyl123.html |archive-date=20 April 2012 }} It was constructed by contractors John Mowlem and Co from 1967 to 1972,{{cite web|url=http://thames.me.uk/s00050.htm|title=Where Thames Smooth Waters Glide|access-date=4 May 2008|archive-date=12 April 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080412031827/http://thames.me.uk/s00050.htm|url-status=dead}} and opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 16 March 1973."London's new bridge— Open today: the latest in a line that goes back 1000 years", Evening Standard (London), 16 March 1973, p. 27"Rooftop vigil as the Queen opens bridge", Leicester Mercury, 16 March 1973, p. 1"Queen Hails New London Bridge", by Tom Lambert, Los Angeles Times, 17 March 1973, p. I-3 (Queen Elizabeth opened the newest London Bridge Friday, saying it showed no signs of falling down.") It comprises three spans of prestressed-concrete box girders, a total of {{convert|833|ft|m|0}} long. The cost of £4 million (£{{Formatprice|{{Inflation|UK|4000000|1971}}}} in {{Inflation-year|UK}}),{{Inflation-fn|UK}} was met entirely by the Bridge House Estates charity. The current bridge was built in the same location as Rennie's bridge, with the previous bridge remaining in use while the first two girders were constructed upstream and downstream. Traffic was then transferred onto the two new girders, and the previous bridge demolished to allow the final two central girders to be added.Yee, plate 65 and others

In 1984, the British warship HMS Jupiter collided with London Bridge, causing significant damage to both the ship and the bridge.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Frigate hits London Bridge |date=14 June 1984 |issue=61857 |page=1 |column=E-G |first=Rupert |last=Morris }}

On Remembrance Day 2004, several bridges in London were furnished with red lighting as part of a night-time flight along the river by wartime aircraft. London Bridge was the one bridge not subsequently stripped of the illuminations, which are regularly switched on at night.{{cn|date=May 2024}}

The current London Bridge is often shown in films, news and documentaries showing the throng of commuters journeying to work into the City from London Bridge Station (south to north). An example of this is actor Hugh Grant crossing the bridge north to south during the morning rush hour, in the 2002 film About a Boy.{{cn|date=May 2024}}

On 11 July 2008, as part of the annual Lord Mayor's charity appeal and to mark the 800th anniversary of Old London Bridge's completion in the reign of King John, the Lord Mayor and Freemen of the City drove a flock of sheep across the bridge, supposedly by ancient right.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thelordmayorsappeal.org/|title=A Better City for All: The Lord Mayor's Appeal 2019/2020|website=www.thelordmayorsappeal.org}}

On 3 June 2017, three pedestrians were killed by a van in a terrorist attack. Altogether, eight people died and 48 were injured in the attack. Security barriers were installed on the bridge to help isolate the pedestrian pavement from the road.{{cite news |date=3 June 2017 |title='Van hits pedestrians' on London Bridge in 'major incident' |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-40146916 |work=BBC News |access-date=3 June 2017}}

File:London Bridge from Cannon Street Railway Bridge.jpg|View of London Bridge from a boat passing under Cannon Street Railway Bridge

File:London Bridge - geograph.org.uk - 478726.jpg|The current London Bridge in January 1987, with the National Westminster Tower skyscraper (Tower 42) opened six years earlier in the background

File:Views to the south from 20 Fenchurch Street - 006.jpg|London Bridge from 20 Fenchurch Street

File:London Bridge security barriers.jpg|London Bridge with 2017 security barriers and the bulbous Walkie-Talkie building at right

The nearest London Underground stations are Monument, at the northern end of the bridge, and London Bridge at the southern end. London Bridge station is also served by National Rail.

• The nursery rhyme and folk song "London Bridge Is Falling Down" has been speculatively connected to several of the bridge's historic collapses.
• Rennie's New London Bridge is a prominent landmark in T. S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land, wherein he compares the shuffling commuters across London Bridge to the hell-bound souls of Dante's Inferno. Also in that poem is a reference to the "inexplicable splendour of Ionian white and gold" of the church of St Magnus-the-Martyr, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, which marks the northern approach to the bridge, and the poem also ends with the lines "I sat upon the shore/fishing, with the arid plain behind me./Shall I at least set my lands in order?/London bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down".
• In Charles Dickens' Sketches by Boz, in the story entitled Scotland-yard there is much discussion by coal-heavers on the replacement of London Bridge in 1832, including a portent that the event will dry up the Thames.
• Gary P. Nunn's song "London Homesick Blues" includes the lyrics, "Even London Bridge has fallen down, and moved to Arizona, now I know why."{{cite web|title=London Homesick Blues|url=http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/l/londonhomesickblues.shtml|website=International Lyrics Playground|access-date=29 April 2017}}
• English composer Eric Coates wrote a march about London Bridge in 1934.
• London Bridge is named in the World War II song "The King is Still in London" by Roma Campbell-Hunter & Hugh Charles.{{cite web|last1=Huntley|first1=Bill|title=The King is Still in London|url=http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/k/kingisstillinlondon.shtml|website=International Lyrics Playground|access-date=1 May 2020}}
• Fergie released a song titled "London Bridge" in 2006 as the lead single of her first solo album, The Dutchess.{{Cite web|last=Vineyard|first=Jennifer|title=Black Eyed Peas' Fergie Gets Rough And Regal In First Video From Solo LP|url=http://www.mtv.com/news/1536116/black-eyed-peas-fergie-gets-rough-and-regal-in-first-video-from-solo-lp/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140924041417/http://www.mtv.com/news/1536116/black-eyed-peas-fergie-gets-rough-and-regal-in-first-video-from-solo-lp/|url-status=dead|archive-date=24 September 2014|access-date=9 August 2021|website=MTV News|language=en}} The music video for the track features the singer on a boat near London's Tower Bridge,Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/WD33ii01kXI Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20160804224918/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD33ii01kXI&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{Citation|title=Fergie - London Bridge (Oh Snap) (Official Music Video)|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD33ii01kXI|language=en|access-date=9 August 2021}}{{cbignore}} which, despite the song's title, is not London Bridge. The song peaked at number one on Billboard's Hot 100 chart.{{Cite magazine|title=Fergie|url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/fergie/chart-history/hsi/|access-date=9 August 2021|magazine=Billboard}}

{{Portal|London}}

• List of Roman bridges
• Roman bridge
• List of crossings of the River Thames
• List of bridges in London

{{Reflist}}

• Gerhold, Dorian, London Bridge and its Houses, c.1209-1761, London Topographical Society, 2019, {{ISBN|978-17-89257-51-9}}; 2nd edition, Oxbow Books, 2021, {{ISBN|1-789257-51-4}}.
• Home, Gordon, Old London Bridge, John Lane the Bodley Head Limited, 1931.
• Jackson, Peter, London Bridge – A Visual History, Historical Publications, revised edition, 2002, {{ISBN|0-948667-82-6}}.
• Murray, Peter & Stevens, Mary Anne, Living Bridges – The inhabited bridge, past, present and future, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1996, {{ISBN|3-7913-1734-2}}.
• Pierce, Patricia, Old London Bridge – The Story of the Longest Inhabited Bridge in Europe, Headline Books, 2001, {{ISBN|0-7472-3493-0}}.
• Watson, Bruce, Brigham, Trevor and Dyson, Tony, London Bridge: 2000 years of a river crossing, Museum of London Archaeology Service, {{ISBN|1-901992-18-7}}.
• Yee, Albert, London Bridge – Progress Drawings, no publisher, 1974, {{ISBN|978-0-904742-04-6}}.

{{Commons category|London Bridge}}

• [http://www.oldlondonbridge.com/ The London Bridge Museum and Educational Trust]
• [https://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/image_galleries/old_london_bridge_gallery.shtml Views of Old London Bridge ca. 1440], BBC London
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120507045826/http://www.southwark.gov.uk/info/200159/history_of_southwark/1010/london_bridge Southwark Council page with more info about the bridge]
• [https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors/launch_vt_londonbridge.shtml Virtual reality tour of Old London Bridge]
• [https://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=DZwAAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&pg=GBS.PA33 Old London Bridge, Mechanics Magazine No. 318, September 1829]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120803005416/http://www.thelondonbridgeexperience.com/history-of-london-bridge.asp The London Bridge Experience]
• [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/the_bridge_that_crossed_an_ocean The bridge that crossed an ocean (And the man who moved it)] BBC News, 23 September 2018

{{ThamesCrossings | west=City & South London Railway tunnels (disused)
Cannon Street Railway Bridge | east=Northern line tunnel
between Bank
and London Bridge}}

{{Bridges of Central London}}

{{London history}}

{{City of London gates}}

{{London Borough of Southwark}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Bridges across the River Thames

Category:Bridges completed in 1831

Category:Bridges completed in 1973

Category:Bridges completed in the 13th century

Category:Bridges completed in the 1st century

Category:Bridges in London

Category:Bridges in Roman Britain

Category:Bridges in the City of London

Category:Bridges with buildings

Category:Buildings and structures completed in 1209

Category:Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Southwark

Category:Former toll bridges in England

Category:History of the City of London

Category:London folklore

Category:Rebuilt buildings and structures in the United Kingdom

Category:Tourist attractions in the City of London

Category:Tourist attractions in the London Borough of Southwark

Category:Transport in the London Borough of Southwark

Category:William II of England

Category:William the Conqueror