A Brief History of London Bridge

The current historical thinking suggests that there has been some sort of crossing over the River Thames in the location of London bridge for nearly 2000 years.

The first structure was probably a pontoon built by the Romans around 50 AD, and later replaced by a more permanent bridge. Over the centuries, numerous bridges were destroyed and then rebuilt, although the exact number is a mystery. Many of them were sabotaged in military conflicts for strategic reasons.

One of these episodes involving the Danes and the Anglo Saxons is thought to be the inspiration for the "London Bridge is Falling Down" nursery rhyme.

In 1176, a priest named Peter Colechurch started construction on the first stone bridge, and it took over 30 years to finish the project. There were 19 arches holding up the bridge, and each one was a different width, probably to account for variations in the river bed. The first stone bridge was used for more than six hundred years, but there were some disasters that threatened the bridge over that time, including a terrible fire in 1666, and collapsing arches.

In 1825, they finally decided to build a more modern structure, and they chose a design created by an engineer named John Rennie. It was 928 feet in length, and 49 feet wide, with 5 arches. Rennie died before the structure was actually built, and his son completed the project for him in 1931. In the late 60’s when they replaced Rennies bridge, they actually sold the original it to an entrepreneur named Robert McCulloch, who moved the whole structure to Arizona and reconstructed it.

The replacement for Rennie’s bridge is the same London bridge we’re using now. Advances in engineering allowed for its construction with only two piers, unlike the older bridges which had been designed around numerous arches. The new design allows much more width for ship traffic, and the modern technology used in it’s creation will probably make it last for a very long time.