Tower Bridge Rd, London SE1 2UP, United Kingdom

Bridging the gap between old and new, majestic Tower Bridge offers some of the best views in London. At 134 years old, its history is dwarfed by its neighbour, The Tower of London. Home to the Crown Jewels, the iconic Beefeaters in their striking scarlet coats, and the Tower’s mystical ravens, its 1,000-year-heritage has seen it morph from Tudor prison to army training ground in World War II, with a virtual tour providing a snapshot of its incredible past. Fan of modern architecture? With Canary Wharf – one of London’s most instantly recognisable skyscrapers – standing proudly on the other side of the bridge, it’s not all about the past. Formerly the tallest building in the United Kingdom, this skyscraper marked the start of the area’s regeneration in the early 1990s, and is now a buzzing mecca for international business and investment, not to mention high-end shopping, bars and restaurants

Tower Bridge is a combined bascule and suspension bridge in London, built between 1886 and 1894. The bridge crosses the River Thames close to the Tower of London and has become an iconic symbol of London. As a result, it is sometimes confused with London Bridge, about half a mile (0.8 km) upstream. Tower Bridge is one of five London bridges owned and maintained by the Bridge House Estates, a charitable trust overseen by the City of London Corporation. It is the only one of the trust’s bridges not to connect the City of London directly to the Southwark bank, as its northern landfall is in Tower Hamlets.

The bridge consists of two bridge towers tied together at the upper level by two horizontal walkways, designed to withstand the horizontal tension forces imposed by the suspended sections of the bridge on the landward sides of the towers. The vertical components of the forces in the suspended sections and the vertical reactions of the two walkways are carried by the two robust towers. The bascule pivots and operating machinery are housed in the base of each tower.

The bridge deck is freely accessible to both vehicles and pedestrians, whereas the bridge’s twin towers, high-level walkways and Victorian engine rooms form part of the Tower Bridge Exhibition, for which an admission charge is made. The nearest London Underground tube stations are Tower Hill on the Circle and District lines, London Bridge on the Jubilee and Northern lines and Bermondsey on the Jubilee line, and the nearest Docklands Light Railway station is Tower Gateway.^[1] The nearest National Rail stations are at Fenchurch Street and London Bridge.