Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Golden Jubilee Bridges - London - Places of Interest

Central London has three major pedestrian bridges across the River Thames, the Millennium Bridge near Tate Modern which opened in 2000 and had a lot of problems with it moving around when large numbers of people used it, and the two Golden Jubliee Bridges opened in 2002 and named for the Queen’s fiftieth anniversary as monarch.

They are also known as the Hungerford footbridges because they have been built on each side of the Hungerford Railway Bridge that takes trains coming from south London into Charing Cross Station. The footbridges were the result of a competition in 1996 and the designers had to take into account the fact the railway bridge had to be kept in use during construction and that the Bakerloo Underground Line was directly under where the bridges were to be erected.

Each footbridge is 320m long and over 4m wide and provide a nice way to cross the river. They’re located about halfway between Westminster and Waterloo Bridges and even though they have high pylons and struts supporting the footbridges they do offer some good positions to take photos up and down the river.
They pretty much hide the steel framed railway bridge which is no bad thing because its not the best looking bridge across the Thames.

If you’re near Trafalgar Square and want to cross to the south bank, the quickest way is to walk down past Charing Cross Station to the Embankment and the footbridge will bring you out on the other side of the river between the Royal Festival Hall and the London Eye area.

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