Tower Bridge: How London’s Iconic Landmark Was Built - And Why It Still Matters Today

In London, few structures command attention like Tower Bridge. It’s not just a crossing over the Thames - it’s a symbol of the city’s grit, ingenuity, and enduring character. You’ve seen it in photos, maybe even walked across it on a sunny afternoon, but how many of you know what it took to turn this iron-and-stone dream into reality? Back in the 1800s, London’s East End was booming. Ships from the Empire docked at Pool of London, carrying tea from Calcutta, cotton from Manchester, and spices from the Caribbean. But as trade grew, so did traffic. The old London Bridge, built in 1831, couldn’t handle the load. And with tall-masted vessels still needing passage, the city faced a problem: how do you let ships through without shutting down the road?

The Birth of a Solution

In 1876, the City of London Corporation held a design competition. Over 50 submissions poured in - from grand arches to floating drawbridges. But one stood out: a hybrid of bascule and suspension design by Horace Jones, the City Architect, and John Wolfe Barry, a civil engineer who’d worked on the Thames Embankment. Their idea? Two massive towers, each 65 meters tall, holding up a central span that could lift like a seesaw. The mechanism would be powered by steam, using hydraulic accumulators filled with water and pressurized by piston pumps. It wasn’t just clever - it was audacious.

Construction began in 1886. Over 11,000 tons of steel formed the framework. More than 70,000 tons of concrete anchored the piers into the riverbed. Workers labored in freezing fog and tidal surges, often waist-deep in mud. Ten men died during the build - a quiet cost no plaque remembers. But by 1894, it was done. On June 30, Queen Victoria herself opened the bridge, though she never actually crossed it. The royal carriage was too wide for the approach roads.

How It Actually Works

People assume Tower Bridge opens for big ships. It doesn’t. Most vessels today are small - yachts, river tours, even the odd Thames Clipper. The bridge lifts about 800 times a year, mostly on request. If you’ve ever stood on the walkway and heard that deep, groaning rumble, you’ve heard the old steam system replaced by electric motors in 1976. The original hydraulic system? Still there. It’s preserved in the Engine Rooms, now a museum. You can see the giant levers, the brass gauges, the oil-stained floorboards. It’s like stepping into a Victorian engineering cathedral.

And here’s something most tourists miss: the high-level walkways. Built so pedestrians could cross even when the bridge was raised, they were closed for decades after falling into disrepair - and used by pickpockets and vagrants. They reopened in 1982 as a glass-floored attraction. Walk across them now, and you’re staring down at the river, the barges, the cranes of Canary Wharf. It’s dizzying. And perfect for a selfie.

More Than a Bridge - A Living Part of London

Tower Bridge isn’t frozen in time. It’s part of London’s pulse. Every year, it lights up for the Mayor’s New Year’s Eve fireworks. During the London Marathon, runners cross it at mile 22, just after the brutal climb from Tower Hill. In summer, the riverbank below fills with people eating fish and chips from the nearby Golden Hind pub, watching the Thames River Cruises glide under the open span.

And it’s not just a tourist draw. Local businesses thrive on it. The Tower Bridge Café, tucked under the south tower, serves proper English breakfasts with views of the City skyline. The Tower Bridge Exhibition offers guided tours led by ex-bridge engineers - men who used to manually crank the levers before automation. One told me, with a chuckle, that he once had to stop a bridge lift because a Royal Navy frigate forgot to call ahead. “We waited an hour,” he said. “She was only 20 meters too tall.”

Why It Still Matters

Tower Bridge isn’t the oldest bridge in London. That’s London Bridge - the modern one, which replaced the 1970s version that was sold to an American billionaire. But Tower Bridge? It’s the one that remembers. It remembers the steam whistles of the 1890s, the clatter of horse-drawn carts, the blackout drills of WWII, the crowds cheering after the 2012 Olympics torch passed beneath it.

It’s a reminder that London doesn’t just preserve history - it keeps it working. Unlike the frozen relics of some European cities, Tower Bridge still does its job. It opens for a tugboat hauling sand from Kent. It glows blue for Pride. It lets commuters rush to the Bank of England and tourists snap photos with the Tower of London in the background.

There’s a quiet pride in how it works - no fanfare, no drama. Just a steady rhythm: lift, lower, repeat. Like the Tube. Like the buskers at Covent Garden. Like the morning milk delivery still happening in some parts of Southwark.

Visiting Tower Bridge - What You Need to Know

If you’re in London and want to see it right, skip the guided tour unless you’re a history buff. Instead, do this:

• Walk across it at 8 a.m. on a weekday. You’ll have the whole span to yourself, with the sun rising over the Shard and the City skyline glowing pink.
• Grab a coffee from the Pret on Tower Bridge Approach and sit on the bench near the south tower. Watch the bridge lift - it happens more often than you think.
• Take the Tube to Tower Hill Station. Exit onto the square, turn left, and walk toward the river. The bridge doesn’t announce itself - it just appears, like a giant iron dragon rising from the water.
• Visit the Engine Rooms. It’s £12.50, but you’ll see the original steam engines, the brass control panels, and the handwritten logs from 1894. The staff still wear period uniforms.
• Don’t miss the view from the top of the Tower of London. From the White Tower, Tower Bridge looks like a toy - but up close, it’s a masterpiece.

And if you’re lucky, catch one of the rare occasions when it lifts for a tall ship - like the HMS Belfast, moored nearby. That’s when you’ll understand why London built it. Not for show. Not for tourists. But because the city needed to keep moving - even when the river demanded it.

Tower Bridge in Modern London

These days, the bridge is monitored by a digital control room tucked beneath the north tower. Sensors track water levels, wind speed, and vessel schedules. But the core system? Still mechanical. The same gears. The same counterweights. The same weight of history.

It’s not just a bridge. It’s a statement. In a city that’s torn down churches for flats and turned warehouses into co-working spaces, Tower Bridge refuses to change. It doesn’t need to. It was built to last - and it has. It carries 40,000 people a day. It lets ships pass. It holds up the skyline.

And every time it lifts, it reminds Londoners: we didn’t just build this to cross a river. We built it to prove we could.