London Bridge

London Bridge is in London, the capital city of the United Kingdom.

It goes over a big river called the Thames. Cars, buses and lots of people walking cross it every day. It is made of strong concrete.

London Bridge carries a road and footpaths over the River Thames, joining the City of London on the north bank to Southwark on the south. Many people mix it up with Tower Bridge, the fancy bridge with towers, but London Bridge is the next bridge upriver, to the west.

Today's bridge is plain and smooth, made of concrete, with just three wide spans. It opened in 1973. But it is only the latest of many bridges here. For hundreds of years, London Bridge was the only bridge across the Thames in London.

London Bridge is a road and foot bridge connecting the City of London with Southwark; the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) notes that it links major road routes north and south of the river and that it is often confused with Tower Bridge, the next crossing downstream. Until Westminster Bridge was built in 1749, it was London's only bridge across the Thames.

The present bridge has three spans of prestressed concrete: a 340 ft (about 104 m) center span and two 260 ft (about 79 m) side spans, with a width of 107 ft (about 33 m). Illuminated River, the project that lights the central London bridges, calls it minimalist: its only decoration is granite obelisks on the pier faces and polished granite on the parapet walls.

The bridge has three long jumps across the river, called spans.

Two thick legs, called piers, stand in the water. The words London Bridge are carved on the side!

The bridge crosses the river in three long spans. The middle one is the longest, about 104 meters. Only two piers stand in the river, so boats have wide, clear channels to pass through.

The footpath on the east side of the bridge is much wider than the one on the west, because so many people walk across from London Bridge station to work. The bridge is plain, with smooth concrete and polished granite walls along its edges. At night, colored lights by the artist Leo Villareal light it up, as part of the Illuminated River artwork.

Three prestressed concrete spans (Illuminated River calls them cantilevers; ICE describes four precast box beams) cross the river: a 340 ft center span and two 260 ft side spans. With only two piers in the tideway, the navigation channels are wider than under Rennie's bridge.

Illuminated River notes that the eastern footpath was made much wider than the western one for commuters arriving at London Bridge station, and that the often-repeated story of heated footpaths is not true: the plan was never completed because of high running costs. Leo Villareal's Illuminated River lighting now responds to the movement and activity around the bridge. In 1984, ICE records, the British warship HMS Jupiter collided with the bridge, damaging both.

Today, thousands of people cross London Bridge.

The old stone bridge was taken apart and rebuilt far away, in Arizona in the United States! Once a year, sheep even walk across London Bridge.

London Bridge is still a busy crossing for buses, cars and people on foot. Once every autumn, traffic stops and sheep are driven across the bridge by Freemen of the City of London, a custom that goes back to the 1100s.

And the old granite bridge? In 1968 its stone facing was sold to the McCulloch company and shipped to the United States. It was rebuilt over a new structure at Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Some people say the buyers thought they were getting Tower Bridge, but that story is not true.

ICE stresses the bridge's significance as London's first road bridge, the first permanent crossing of the Thames, and a record of bridge-building materials from timber to concrete and steel. Illuminated River records the annual autumn Sheep Drive by Freemen of the City of London, a practice dating back to the 12th century.

Rennie's bridge was bought in 1968 for £1 million (then $2.4 million) by the McCulloch Oil Corporation, according to Illuminated River; ICE says its granite facework and parapets went to McCulloch Properties of California and were rebuilt on a new bridge structure at Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Illuminated River adds that the tale that the buyers thought they had bought Tower Bridge has no foundation.