3-008-424 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

New bridge at Lambeth, 1862. A new bridge became necessary due to '...the increase of the Pimlico and Chelsea districts, to which it will give a more direct communication by one-third of a mile to the east end of London, and thus divert, to a great extent, the traffic now passing round the Strand and Fleet-street to the City...It is designed to have three spans of 280ft., and it resembles in principle a suspension-bridge, but differs from any other hitherto constructed in this country by its having wire cables of charcoal iron instead of cables composed of links of ordinary wrought iron...The river piers are formed of cast iron...[The bridge] is to be 32ft. in width, comprising a roadway of 20ft., for two lines of carriages, and two footpaths of 6ft. This width, it is estimated, is sufficient to convey annually, without inconvenience, ten millions of foot passengers and two millions of carriages...The engineer...is Mr. Peter W. Barlow, who has recently visited America to examine the Niagara Railway Suspension-bridge...The contractors for the work - with the exception of the wire cables, which are supplied by Messrs. Newall and Co., of Gateshead - are Messrs. Porter and Co., of Birmingham. The total contract amount for the bridge is £28,000'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.