Tower Bridge exposed – early pictures reveal construction of a landmark

Begun in 1886, Tower Bridge was the largest and most sophisticated bridge of its type. Its bascules – from the French for see-saw – were operated by enormous steam-powered engines and their raising and lowering allowed for the least possible disruption to the river traffic on the Thames.

It had taken five main contractors and the efforts of 432 construction workers every day for eight years to bring the project to completion.

Two huge piers had to be sunk into the riverbed to support the 11,000 tons of steel from which were fashioned the framework for the towers. The bare frames can be seen in some of these pictures before they were covered in Cornish Granite and Portland Stone to give the bridge the aesthetic we now recognise.

It may have been overspecified somewhat. By 1910 it had been recognised that the high-level walkways which allowed pedestrians to cross the bridge when it was raised, were hardly ever used, and they were closed. Two years later, another use for them was found when the pioneer aviator Frank McClean flew between the walkways and the bascules in a seaplane, on his way to Westminster.

Oil and electricity, not steam, has powered the bascules since the 1970s but in other respects Tower Bridge had survived the decades remarkably unscathed – save for one incident in 1952. That was when a number 78 London bus had to leap from one bascule to the other after a relief gatekeeper failed to sound the warning that the bridge was about to rise. The bus cleared a 6ft gap and the driver, who broke his leg, was handed a £10 bonus for his efforts.

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