Vauxhall Bridge
Vauxhall Bridge is a steel and granite deck arch
bridge in central London. It crosses the River Thames in a south-east
north-west direction between Vauxhall on the south bank and Pimlico on
the north bank. Opened in 1906, it replaced an earlier bridge,
originally known as Regent Bridge but later renamed Vauxhall Bridge,
built between 1809 and 1816 as part of a scheme for redeveloping the
south bank of the Thames. The original bridge was itself built on the
site of a former ferry.
The building of both bridges was problematic, with both the first
and second bridges requiring several redesigns from multiple
architects. The original bridge, the first iron bridge over the
Thames, was built by a private company and operated as a toll bridge
before being taken into public ownership in 1879. The second bridge,
which took eight years to build, was the first in London to carry
trams and later one of the first two roads in London to have a bus
lane.
Photo 631, May 2011