Everything about Waterloo Bridge totally explained
Waterloo Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the
River Thames in
London,
England between
Blackfriars Bridge and
Hungerford Bridge. The name of the bridge is in memory of the British victory at the
Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Thanks to its location at a strategic bend in the river, the views of London (
Westminster, the
South Bank and
London Eye to the west, the
City of London and
Canary Wharf to the east) from the bridge are widely held to be the finest from any spot at ground level.
History
The first bridge on the site was designed by
John Rennie and opened in 1817 as a
toll bridge. The
granite bridge had nine arches, each of span, and was long, including approaches. Before its opening it was known as '
Strand Bridge'. It was nationalised in 1878 and given to the
Metropolitan Board of Works, who removed the toll from it. Serious problems were found in its construction and the new owners reinforced it. Paintings of the bridge were created by the French
Impressionist Claude Monet and English Impressionist,
John Constable.
By the 1920s, the problems had increased.
London County Council decided to demolish it and replace it with a new structure designed by Sir
Giles Gilbert Scott. The new span was partially opened in 1942 and completed in 1945. The new bridge was the only Thames bridge to have been damaged by
German bombers during
World War II. The building contractor was
Peter Lind & Company Limited. It is frequently asserted that the work force was largely female and it's sometimes referred to as "the ladies' bridge". It is constructed in
Portland stone from the South West of England; the stone cleans itself whenever it rains in London.
Granite stones from the original bridge were subsequently "presented to various parts of the British world to further historic links in the British
Commonwealth of Nations". Two of these stones are in
Canberra, the capital city of
Australia, sited between the parallel spans of the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge, one of two major crossings of
Lake Burley Griffin in the heart of the city. Stones from the bridge were used to build a monument in
Wellington,
New Zealand, to Paddy the Wanderer, a dog that roamed the wharves from 1928 to 1939 and was befriended by seamen, watersiders, Harbour Board workers and taxi drivers. The monument includes a bronze likeness of Paddy and drinking bowls for dogs.
The south end of the bridge is the area known as
The South Bank and includes the
Royal Festival Hall,
Waterloo station,
Queen Elizabeth Hall, the
Royal National Theatre, and the
National Film Theatre (directly beneath the bridge). The north end passes above the
Victoria Embankment where the road joins the
Strand and
Aldwych alongside
Somerset House.
Georgi Markov
Georgi Markov was a
Bulgarian
dissident assassinated on Waterloo Bridge by agents of the Bulgarian
secret police assisted by the
KGB. On
7 September 1978, Markov crossed Waterloo Bridge to wait at a
bus stop on the other side, when he was jabbed in the leg by a man holding an
umbrella. The man apologized and walked away. Markov would later tell doctors that the man had spoken in a foreign accent.
On the evening of 7 September, Markov developed a high fever. He died in agony three days later. After his death, doctors found a small
platinum pellet embedded in his calf. Further examination found that two small holes had been drilled in the bullet containing traces of the poison
ricin.
Miscellaneous facts
- Robert E. Sherwood's 1930 play, Waterloo Bridge, about a soldier who falls in love and marries a woman he meets on the bridge, unaware that she's a prostitute, was made into films released in 1931 and 1940. The latter starred Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor.
Michael Faraday tried in 1832 to measure the potential difference
between each side of the bridge caused by the ebbing salt water flowing through the Earth's magnetic field. See magnetohydrodynamics.
After the Lunch is a poem by Wendy Cope about two lovers parting on Waterloo Bridge.
Most of the stones of the demolished Waterloo Bridge were taken to Harmondsworth Moor on the western edge of London. Many of them still remain there in various places around the moor.Further Information
Get more info on 'Waterloo Bridge'.
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