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Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge crosses the Thames between Tower Hamlets and Southwark, next to the Tower of London. It was built between 1886 and 1894 to a design by the architect Horace Jones and the engineer John Wolfe Barry, in Gothic Revival style, with two stone towers on a steel structure. It is a bascule bridge: its two central leaves, with a 61-metre span, are raised to let tall ships through. The original mechanism ran on steam engines and hydraulic pressure; it was replaced by an electro-hydraulic system in 1976. The Tower Bridge Exhibition lets you climb the towers, cross the high-level walkways 43 metres above the river, with sections of glass floor, and visit the original Victorian engine rooms, with their boilers and steam engines. Crossing the bridge by the roadway or pavement is free; the ticket gives access to the interior only. The bridge is still raised several times a week depending on river traffic, with a schedule published on its official website.

Things to do at Tower Bridge: 3 missions

• Check whether the bridge lifts during your visitBefore you go, check the official “bridge lifts” schedule (planned openings of the bridge to let ships through) and see whether any coincides with your timetable.
• Walk on the glass floorCross the high-level walkways along the glass-floor section, 43 metres above the Thames, and look down as buses and taxis go by.
• Look for the original 1894 boilersGo into the Engine Rooms and find the coal boilers and steam engines that powered the bridge until 1976.

Near Tower Bridge

Source: Web oficial de Tower Bridge