Another hot day and this time our main activity for the day was the Tower Bridge experience (covered by our London pass)
We had a great look inside the bridge climbing the 250 steps to the top.
The glass panels were fun to walk on!
While we were there they lifted tower bridge for a maintenance check. This wasn’t very high, but was still cool to look down on
Kim was fascinated with the engines!
Extra notes for the history buffs……
1800’s – London bridge was getting too crowded with a huge increase in population sometimes taking two hours to cross (Almost as bad as rush-hour traffic in Auckland). It was decided another bridge was needed so a design competition was held. Horace Jones submitted his first design, but this was rejected on the grounds that it was not high enough for ships to pass under. He submitted a second design and this was accepted. Tower bridge officially opened in 1894.
There is a law preventing the bridge charging a fee for boats to pass underneath.
An old tradition but still practiced today, a bale of hay is suspended under the bridge as a visual alert that men are working under the bridge and that there is less room than normal to pass under the bridge.
After this was lunch, then a lovely (and cool) hop on hop off cruise on the river. But that is for another blog……..
Traveling Further 