Chelsea Bridge (London)
N 51° 29.072 W 000° 08.991
30U E 697885 N 5707561
Chelsea Bridge is a bridge over the River Thames in west London, connecting Chelsea on the north bank to Battersea on the south bank.
Waymark Code: WMMMQN
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 10/11/2014
Views: 7
Chelsea Bridge is a bridge over the River Thames in west London, connecting Chelsea on the north bank to Battersea on the south bank.
The bridge, was designed by LCC architects G. Topham Forrest and E. P. Wheeler and built by Holloway Brothers (London) at the site of older one from 1854. Much wider than the older bridge at 20 m wide, it has a 12 m wide roadway and two 3.7 m wide pavements cantilevered out from the sides of the bridge. Uniquely in London, Chelsea Bridge is a self-anchored suspension bridge, the first of the type to be built in Britain. The horizontal stresses are absorbed by stiffening girders in the deck itself and the suspension cables are not anchored to the ground, relieving stress on the abutments which are built on soft and unstable London clay. The piers of the new bridge were built on the site of the old bridge's piers, and are built of concrete, faced with granite above the low-water point. Each side of the bridge has a single suspension cable, each made up of 37 23´mm diameter wire ropes bundled to form a hexagonal cable. As was agreed with the Ministry of Transport, all materials used in the bridge came from the British Empire; the steel came from Scotland and Yorkshire, the granite of the piers from Aberdeen and Cornwall, the timbers of the deck from British Columbia and the asphalt of the roadway from Trinidad.
The new bridge was completed five months ahead of schedule and within the £365,000 budget. It was opened on 6 May 1937 by the Prime Minister of Canada, William Lyon Mackenzie King, who was in London for the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
[excerpted from wiki]