Waterloo Bridge. Waterloo Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London, between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge.
Its name commemorates the victory of the British, Dutch and Prussians at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Thanks to its location at a strategic bend in the river, the views from the bridge are widely held to be the finest from any spot in London at ground level.
The first bridge on the site was designed in 1807-10 by John Rennie for the Strand Bridge of Life and opened in 1817 as a toll bridge. The granite bridge had nine arches, each of 120 feet span, separated by double Doric stone columns, and was 2,456 feet long, including approaches-1,240 feet between abutments-and 42 feet wide between the parapets.
Before its opening it was known as the Strand Bridge. During the 1840s the bridge gained a reputation as a popular place for suicide attempts.
In 1841 the American daredevil Samuel Gilbert Scott was killed while performing an act in which he hung by a rope from a scaffold on the bridge. In 1844 Thomas Hood wrote the poem The Bridge of Sighs, which concerns the suicide of a prostitute there. Paintings of the bridge were created by the French Impressionist Claude Monet and the English Romantic John Constable. The bridge was nationalised in 1878 and placed under the control of the Metropolitan Board of Works, which removed the toll from it. Michae
Its name commemorates the victory of the British, Dutch and Prussians at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Thanks to its location at a strategic bend in the river, the views from the bridge are widely held to be the finest from any spot in London at ground level.
The first bridge on the site was designed in 1807-10 by John Rennie for the Strand Bridge of Life and opened in 1817 as a toll bridge. The granite bridge had nine arches, each of 120 feet span, separated by double Doric stone columns, and was 2,456 feet long, including approaches-1,240 feet between abutments-and 42 feet wide between the parapets.
Before its opening it was known as the Strand Bridge. During the 1840s the bridge gained a reputation as a popular place for suicide attempts.
In 1841 the American daredevil Samuel Gilbert Scott was killed while performing an act in which he hung by a rope from a scaffold on the bridge. In 1844 Thomas Hood wrote the poem The Bridge of Sighs, which concerns the suicide of a prostitute there. Paintings of the bridge were created by the French Impressionist Claude Monet and the English Romantic John Constable. The bridge was nationalised in 1878 and placed under the control of the Metropolitan Board of Works, which removed the toll from it. Michae
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