Tower Bridge & City Hall

Images of Britain: Tower Bridge & City Hall

Tower Bridge is a combined draw bridge and suspension bridge in London over the River Thames. The draw bridge is operated about 1000 times a year.

Tower Bridge gets its name from the nearby Tower of London. Construction of the bridge began in 1886 and the bridge opened in 1894. The bridge consists of two bridge towers (65 metres tall) connected at the upper level by two horizontal walkways. The towers are 61 metres apart with the bridge 240 metres long in total. The towers are clad in Cornish granite and Portland stone.

Tower Bridge has become an iconic symbol of London. It is painted blue and white, its original colors. The bridge is illuminated at night.

Situated on the south bank of the River Thames, directly across the river from the Tower of London and near the southern end of Tower Bridge, London City Hall is a strikingly unique building.

Surprisingly perhaps, even though the buildings shape is both unique and distinctive, it has not earned a common nickname.

Most people know 30 St. Mary Axe as "The Gherkin", 122 Leadenhall Street as "The Cheese Grater", and 20 Fenchurch Street as "The Walkie-Talkie".

However, City Hall has not been memorialized this way even though it has been described by some of its previous tenants such as former Mayor Ken Livingstone, who referred to it as the Glass Testicle.