18th November - Historic Bridge Awareness Month

What do you picture in your head when you think about London Bridge? Whenpicturing London Bridge most people see this:

Contrary to popular belief, this is not the London Bridge. Most people confuse the two bridges because the one in the image, Tower Bridge, stands out more in the city panorama than the newer version of the London Bridge, which was built in the 1960s.

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A brutalist piece of architecture lacks distinguishing features from a distance that indicate its long and meaningful history. Many locals have also criticized the bridge's architecture for being too bland, referring to it as "a common slab of concrete that does nothing to commemorate the city's origins." Speaking about origins, the London bridge is the reason why London became a city. It all started when the Romans decided to attach an island to the mainland, with a simple wooden bridge, and create a new city called Londinium. In the next thousands of years the bridge evolved and in 1209 the ‘Old’ London Bridge that lasted 600 years until 1831, when it was repealed by the new version of it. The 'Old' London Bridge had to be demolished as there were shops, houses, churches, and many other structures on top of it. This strained the foundation over time to the point where pieces of the structure could no longer support the weight and slowly started to fall down into the water, blocking boats from passing and being an inconvenience for the people. The falling bridge pieces inspired the song "London Bridge is Falling Down."

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To reduce traffic disruption and improve overall public safety, it was decided in 1799 that the most effective solution would be to construct an entirely new bridge. The construction of the new bridge began 30 meters upstream, while the 'Old' London bridge was being used for the last time. Finally, in 1831, the 'New' London Bridge was built, and the previous one was unfortunately forgotten and torn down. There are almost no traces of the 'Old' bridge's existence these days, though one of the two entrances has been preserved, commemorating where the old bridge once stood and the city's history. Sadly, this entrance no longer leads anywhere.

                                           

                                                                                          -Virginia MariaSole Benetton