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Welcome to our website for the Tower Bridge in London. Tower Bridge, crossing the river Thames in London, is one of the great landmarks and attractions of England’s capital city. It is however sometimes mistakenly referred to as London Bridge which is the next bridge up. Tower Bridge was built between 1886-1894 and was one of the most impressive engineering feats of its day and was needed to allow better access to the city as London’s East End prospered. The City Engineer Sir Horace Jones came up with the design in 1878 for a double leaf bascule bridge which had to be designed to keep with the impressive architecture of London town, in particularly the Tower of London which is where the bridge takes its name.

It was in the year 1885 when an act was passed authorising the construction of the bridge. To support the bridge, two major piers 185 ft long were sunk into the river bed of the Thames to hold the construction in place. It took over 400 hundred workers and over 11,000 tones of steel to build the bridge and it was clad in Portland Stone and Cornish granite to give its impressive appearance that today still looks impressive especially at night when the bridge is illuminated.

The bridge was built with walkways between the towers to allow people to cross the river when the bridge had been risen to allow shipping to pass although people tended to wait and watch the bridge open. The only people who used the walkway had a very different reason to climb the step - that of suicide. It also had a reputation for tramp and pickpockets as well as prostitution. This lead to the closure until recently when a protective glass covering was added to ensure the safety of the pedestrians

Inside the bridge is the Tower Bridge Exhibition where you can take in magnificent views of the city over the walkways and find out more about the bridges history. Although the bridge is now opened using electric power, you can visit the original steam engines that powered the bridge until 1976. If you pre-book you can take a 'behind the scenes' tour taking a look at the new engines powering the bridge as well as the command centre.