Tower Bridge Timeline

Tower Bridge was officially opened on 30 June 1894 by Edward, Prince of Wales, and Alexandra, Princess of Wales. The total cost of construction was £1,184,000 (equivalent to £133 million in 2025).

Since they were only accessible by stairs, the high-level walkways were seldom used by regular pedestrians and were closed in 1910. From the outset in 1894 they had been intended to allow pedestrian movement to continue while the bascule bridge was open for ship traffic.

The southern section of the bridge, in the London Borough of Southwark, was Grade I listed on 6 December 1949. The remainder, in Tower Hamlets, was listed on 27 September 1973.

On 10 August 1912, pioneering stunt pilot Francis McClean flew his Short Brothers S.33 floatplane between the bascules and the high-level walkways of Tower Bridge.

On 3 August 1922, a 13-year-old boy fell off a slipway next to the south side of Tower Bridge.

On 30 December 1952, a number 78 double-decker bus was crossing Tower Bridge when it began opening. Driver Albert Edward Gunter accelerated, clearing a 1.8 m (6 ft) drop onto the north bascule, which had not started to rise. He was later rewarded with a £10 bonus (about £246.81 in 2025) for his quick thinking.

On 31 July 1973, a single-engined Beagle Pup was twice flown under the pedestrian walkway of Tower Bridge by 29-year-old stockbroker's clerk Peter Martin.

In May 1997, the motorcade of United States President Bill Clinton was divided by the unexpected opening of Tower Bridge.

On 19 August 1999, Jef Smith, a Freeman of the City of London, exercised his historic right by driving a flock of two sheep across Tower Bridge.

Before dawn on 31 October 2003, a Fathers 4 Justice campaigner climbed a 100-foot (30 m) tower crane near Tower Bridge dressed as Spider-Man at the start of a six-day protest.

On 11 May 2009, six people were trapped and injured after a lift fell 10 feet (3 m) inside the north tower of Tower Bridge.

On 9 August 2021, the bridge remained open after a technical failure, causing major disruption to traffic in central London while engineers worked to close it.

In 1940, the high-level span took a direct hit, severing the hydraulic mechanism and taking the bridge out of action.

In April 1941, a parachute mine exploded close to the bridge, causing serious damage to the bascule, towers, and engine room.

In 1942, a third engine was installed in case the existing ones were damaged by enemy action. The engine became redundant when the rest of the system was modernised in 1974 and was donated to the Forncett Industrial Steam Museum.

In 1960, the upper bridges of the two pedestrian walkways connecting the two main towers were converted from cantilever bridges, projecting horizontally out into space, to suspension bridges when suspension cables were added.

Originally hydraulically powered, the operating mechanism was converted to an electro-hydraulic system in 1972. In 1974 the original mechanism was largely replaced by a new electro-hydraulic drive system designed by Geoffrey Beresford Hartwell of BHA Cromwell House, with the original final pinions driven by modern hydraulic motors.

In 1977 the bridge's colour scheme dated from its repainting in red, white, and blue for Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee; this scheme lasted until the refurbishment completed in 2010.

In 1982, the Tower Bridge Exhibition opened, housed in the bridge's twin towers, the long-closed high-level walkways (which reopened that year), and the Victorian engine rooms.

The bridge closed for a month in 2000 to repair the bascules and perform other maintenance. However, the system proved unreliable afterwards, resulting in the bridge being stuck open or closed on several occasions during 2005 until its sensors were replaced.

In April 2008, authorities announced a £4 million refurbishment taking four years. From mid-2008 contractors worked on a quarter of the bridge at a time. The walkway interior renovation was completed mid-2009, and the four suspension chains were finished in March 2010 using up to six layers of paint.

On 8 July 2012, as part of the London Olympics, the west walkway was transformed into a 200-foot-long (61 m) Live Music Sculpture by British composer Samuel Bordoli. Olympic rings hung from the bridge and were later replaced by the Paralympic emblem.

In 2014, the pedestrian walkways in each direction were changed to have glass floors, offering visitors spectacular views over the Thames and the road traffic below.

In 2016, Tower Bridge was closed to all road traffic from 1 October to 30 December for major maintenance work on the structure and its mechanisms.