Hammersmith Bridge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hammersmith Bridge is a crossing of the River Thames in west London, just south of the Hammersmith town centre area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham on the north side of the river. It allows road traffic and pedestrians to cross to Barnes (in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames) on the south side of the river. The current bridge is the second permanent bridge on the site.
The construction of a bridge was first sanctioned by an Act of Parliament in 1824 and work on site began the following year. It was the Thames’ first suspension bridge and was designed by William Tierney Clark.
The bridge had a clear water-way of 688 feet 8 inches. Its suspension towers were 48 feet above the level of the roadway, where they were 22 feet thick. The roadway was slightly curved upwards, 16 feet above high water, and the extreme length from the back of the piers on shore was 822 feet 8 inches, supporting 688 feet of roadway. There were eight chains, composed of wrought-iron bars, each five inches deep and one thick. Four of these had six bars in each chain; and four had only three, making thirty-six bars, which form a dip in the centre of about 29 feet. From these, vertical rods were suspended, which supported the roadway, formed of strong timbers covered with granite. The width of the carriageway was 20 feet, with two footways of five feet. The chains passed over the suspension towers, and were secured to the piers on each shore. The suspension towers were of stone, and designed as archways of the Tuscan order. The approaches were provided with octagonal lodges, or toll-houses, with appropriate lamps and parapet walls, terminating with stone pillars, surmounted with ornamental caps. Construction of the bridge cost some £80,000. It was operated as a toll bridge.
Plans for its replacement began to be made during the 1870s, during which time a temporary bridge allowed a more limited cross-river traffic.
The current suspension bridge was designed by noted civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette and rests on the same pier foundations constructed for Tierney Clark’s structure. It was opened by the Prince of Wales on 11 June 1887. With much of the supporting structure built of wrought iron, it is 700ft long and 43ft wide and cost £82,117 to build.
[edit] IRA attacks
In June 2000, the bridge was damaged by a terrorist bomb, on the 40th anniversary of a previous bombing by the IRA, but after closure for repairs was reopened with weight restrictions in place.[1]
The organisation's first attempt to destroy the 113-year-old bridge in 1939 was foiled by a quick-thinking member of the public. Maurice Childs, from Chiswick, west London, was walking home across the bridge in the early morning when he noticed smoke and sparks coming from a suitcase. He opened it to find a bomb. He threw the bag into the river and the explosion sent up a 60ft column of water.
Moments later, a second device exploded causing girders on the west side of the bridge to collapse and shattering windows in nearby houses. Mr Childs was awarded an MBE for his courage. Eddie Connell and William Browne were given jail sentences of 20 and 10 years respectively.
[edit] External links
- London's Transport Museum Photographic Archive Partial view of William Tierney Clark's bridge, circa 1880
[edit] See also
| Next crossing upstream | River Thames | Next crossing downstream |
| Barnes Railway Bridge (railway) Chiswick Bridge (road) |
Hammersmith Bridge Grid reference: TQ229780 |
Putney Bridge |
