Tower Bridge

We have now completed several Hubs here on Hub Pages but have suddenly realised that we have yet to do one on any destination within the United Kingdom, where we live. As we have travelled the UK extensively, from London to the far north of Scotland, we are certainly not short of material. This Hub is therefore what we hope will be the first of many on UK destinations and will focus on one of London's most famous landmarks, Tower Bridge, over the River Thames.

Tower Bridge takes its name from the fact that it is located very close to the Tower of London. It is very often mistakenly referred to as London Bridge, which is in fact a different bridge altogether. There is a legend that when the old London Bridge was purchased in the sixties by Robert McCulloch - to be shipped to and reconstructed in the USA - he in fact thought that he was purchasing Tower Bridge. This was, however, hotly refuted by all interested parties.

Tower Bridge was built in the late nineteenth century to facilitate the increasing traffic requiring to cross the River Thames as London expanded. It was completed in 1894 and had taken eight years to construct, at a cost of just over one million pounds, and has been an ever present landmark of a much changed London ever since.

In the early afternoon of 11th May 2009, a lift carrying tourists up the North Tower of Tower Bridge inexplicably collapsed, requiring six people to be hospitalised. Reports of how far the lift actually fell ranged from 10 feet to 30 feet and the bridge was subsequently closed altogether to traffic for a couple of hours, causing significant congestion.