The Ports, Harbours, Watering-places and Picturesque Scenery of Great Britain Vol. 1Finden, W. (William)
History
The Ports, Harbours, Watering-places and Picturesque Scenery of Great Britain Vol. 1
Finden, W. (William)
Coasts -- Great Britain -- Pictorial works; Great Britain -- Pictorial works
The New London Bridge, which forms so striking a feature in this View,
is justly considered the finest specimen of bridge-building in Europe.
It is alike the admiration of strangers and natives, and unites in the
highest degree the useful and ornamental--elegance of design with
solidity of structure. The first pile of this superb structure was
driven on the 15th of March, 1824; and on the 27th of April, the
following year, the first stone was laid by his Royal Highness the Duke
of York, attended by the Lord Mayor, a distinguished party of noblemen,
gentlemen, and citizens, and a great concourse of strangers, who had
assembled to witness the imposing ceremony. The contracts amounted to
five hundred and six thousand pounds, but the total expenditure more
than trebled that sum. The clear water-way is six hundred and ninety
feet out of seven hundred and eighty-two--the actual width. The
carriage-way is thirty-five feet wide, and the foot-paths nine feet
each. The central arch, of the five of which it consists, is one hundred
and fifty-two feet in span--one of the largest ever known--it is
twenty-nine feet and a half in height; and there is no _weir_, or fall,
as in the Old London Bridge. We are thus particular in the measurements
that the reader may more readily comprehend the magnificent scale upon
which this great national structure has been finished; and it may be an
additional facility to this purpose to state, that of granite alone one
hundred and twenty thousand tons were consumed in the building.
After six years of incessant labour, it was happily brought to a
successful termination under the direction of the late John Rennie,
Esq., of whose genius as an architect it is a splendid monument. The
opening of the bridge took place on the 1st of August, 1831, and gave
occasion to a magnificent festival, which was honoured with the presence
of his late Majesty William the Fourth and Queen Adelaide, the Lord
Mayor, and all most remarkable for rank and station who were at that
time in London. The ceremony was of the most gorgeous and gratifying
description; and the water-pageant which accompanied it was the finest
ever remembered on the Thames. The bridge was lined with tents and
marquees, from which proudly floated the national standard, with
numerous flags of societies and corporations, which gave the whole a
strikingly gala-like effect. Under these a superb _déjeûner_, consisting
of all the luxuries of the season, was served to the numerous assembly;
and, to give additional novelty to the scene, Mr. C. Green, the
celebrated aëronaut, ascended from the bridge in his balloon, much to
the gratification of the spectators.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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