2. When?
in 1886 the construction of tower bridge began.
work began 22nd April 1886. Divers prepared the
riverbed for massive construction. It must Have been
a scary job! After all it was in the older days and they
didn't have modern equipment. The divers wore
leather suits with metal helmets, And they were
connected to the surface with air tubes.
3. Why?
London's big question was which bridge design would allow tall
ships and other water traffic to go under the design as well as
allowing transport cross over it.
Horace Jones solved the mystery with suggesting
building a Bascule bridge
(French for see saw)
4. How?
In the case of tower bridge you start deep down on
the Tames seabed exactly 10m under the under the
surface. But they then have to sink Caissons 9 meters
into the London clay.
Then when they were con 24 caissons were
Piers constructed.
structed they were filled
with concrete. As extra support they
put steel pliers inside
the concrete. This
would strengthen the
peers and support the
towers. This took
4years to consruct the
peers
5. How?
tower
s
The steel was created by William Arrol and company in
Scotland. the steel was then shifted up the river on barges from
Scotland. As it was needed.
Fun
fact Two massive piers, containing o
70,000 tons of concrete, were sunk
into the riverbed to support the
construction. Over 11,000 tons of
steel provided the framework for the
slowly but shorly towers and walk ways. This was
the steel then clad in Cornish granite and
construction arose Portland stone, both to protect the
from the river underlying steelwork and to give the
thems like a black bridge a pleasing appearance.
skeleton.
7. fun fact
when they were building the high level walk ways they
did not have safety net which meant that extra care was
evolved so they would not drop any tools on other
builders heads below.
8. Extr
a
Tower Bridge has become a symbol
of London and for the Olympics +
Paralympics the rings were lit hung
on Tower Bridge....... And David
Beckoms went under tower bridge
with the rings lit up on Tower
Bridge.
