Battersea Bridge
Battersea Bridge is a five-span arch bridge with cast-iron girders and granite piers crossing the River Thames in London, England. It is situated on a sharp bend in the river, and links Battersea south of the river with Chelsea to the north. The bridge replaced a ferry service that had operated near the site since at least the middle of the 16th century. Although dangerous and unpopular, the bridge was the last surviving wooden bridge on the Thames inLondon.
About Battersea Bridge in brief
Battersea Bridge is a five-span arch bridge with cast-iron girders and granite piers crossing the River Thames in London, England. It is situated on a sharp bend in the river, and links Battersea south of the river with Chelsea to the north. The bridge replaced a ferry service that had operated near the site since at least the middle of the 16th century. Although dangerous and unpopular, the bridge was the last surviving wooden bridge on the Thames inLondon. It was the subject of paintings by many significant artists such as J. M. W. Turner, John Sell Cotman and James McNeill Whistler, including his controversial Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket. In 1885 the existing bridge, designed by Sir Joseph Bazalgette and built by John Mowlem & Co, was demolished and replaced with a new bridge, which opened in 1879. The current bridge is one of London’s least busy Thames bridges, and has been closed many times due to collisions. The location of the bridge makes the bridge a hazard to shipping, and it has been opened and closed due to collision many times. The nearest fixed links between the two were Putney Bridge, 2 1⁄2 miles upstream and opened in 1729, and Westminster Bridge, 3 miles downstream, opening in 1746. In 1772 a chalk and gravel surface was added to the bridge, and in 1772 it was opened to vehicle traffic. Tolls were charged on a sliding scale, ranging from 1 ⁄2 to 1 �2 for pedestrians and four horses or more for vehicles, and were never formally named by the bridge’s owners.
The first BatterSea Bridge was a toll bridge commissioned by John, Earl Spencer, who had recently acquired the rights to operate the ferry. Although a stone bridge was planned, difficulties in raising investment meant that a cheaper wooden bridge was built instead. The new bridge was designed by Henry Holland, and was initially opened to pedestrians in November 1771, and tovehicle traffic in 17 72. It has been the narrowest surviving road bridge over the Thames and is the only one in London to be open to both pedestrians and vehicle traffic at the same time. The next bridge to be built over the river was Westminster Bridge in 1885, which was also designed by Holland, but opened later that year to vehicle and pedestrian traffic at a cost of £83,000. The last bridge to cross the Thames is Westminster Bridge at Putney, built in 1829, which is also open to vehicles and pedestrians at a rate of 1,000 a day. The site is popularly believed to be the site of Julius Caesar’s crossing of the Thames during the 54 BC invasion of Britain. Chelsea, about 3 miles west of Westminster on the north bank of theRiver Thames, has existed as a settlement since at at least Anglo-Saxon times. At peak periods almost 250,000 Chelsea buns per day were sold. By the 18th century it had large numbers of very prosperous residents.
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This page is based on the article Battersea Bridge published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 02, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
