Bridge

home

Nina Di Salvo

Science


 * // __ Tower Bridge __ // **



One of world’s most architecturally yet elegant inventions, in my opinion, is the greatest accomplishment in architect. There are so many different types of bridges and so many levels elegance in bridges. They are all for the same purpose but, they are built differently. For instance in the US we have some famous elegant bridges but most are just for getting from place to place, with some art work on the sides. But, in France or London they take bridge building to the next level. Bridges in London for example aren’t just about getting from place to place they build theirs to be the best.

The bridge I am building is the Tower Bridge. The Tower Bridge is located in London, in England. The Tower bridge is one of the worlds most recognizable bridges in the world. The creation of the Tower Bridge, Construction started in 1886 and took eight years with five major contractors – [|Sir John Jackson], [|Baron Armstrong] , [|William Webster] , Sir [|H.H. Bartlett] , and [|Sir William Arrol & Co.] – And employed 450 construction workers. E W Crutwell was the resident engineer for the construction.

The bridge, designed by city architect Horace Jones (Jones died in 1887 and George D. Stevenson took over the project) in collaboration with John Wolfe Barry, would eventually be completed in 1894. Five contractors and nearly 450 workers were involved in the construction of the 265meter long bridge. Two massive piers, containing over 70,000 tons of [|concrete], were sunk into the riverbed to support the construction. It took 11,000 tons of steel to build the framework. At that time many people didn’t like its “Victorian Gothic” design, but over time the bridge became one of London’s most famous symbols.

 In building and researching this bridge I gained lots of information. I learned that, there is a bridge called the tower bridge. I also learned that to build this bridge it took, 450 workers, 70,000 tons of concrete, 11,000 tons of steel, and lots of time. I found out that this bridge was built in the late 1800s and is still standing! This bridge is over 123 years old and looks new.