3-011-592 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Demolition of Blackfriars Bridge, [London], 1864. View from the Surrey bank of the Thames, showing '...the scaffolding which has been erected facilitate the removal of materials...[Also visible are] the temporary wooden bridge...[and] the iron bridge of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway...The old bridge, of which the remains are so quickly disappearing, was built about a hundred years ago, having been commenced in 1760 and finished in 1769...at this season, when the days are so short, [the men] have to work in the evening by the light of naphtha-lamps...A novel feature in the mechanical appliances here used is the introduction of steam-cranes, which travel upon railways laid along the beams at the top of the scaffolding, and are thus enabled to lift and carry the largest blocks of stone with unexampled rapidity...Three openings, each 70 ft. wide, are reserved for navigation, by order of the Thames Conservancy Board...Messrs. Thorne and Co. [are] the contractors...under the superintendence of Mr. F. W. Bryant'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.