\paperw3360 \margr0\margl0\ATXph16380 \plain \fs20 \f1 \fs22 LondonÆs crowning achievement in the field of metropolitan engineering is \b \cf4 \ATXht11571000 Tower Bridge\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 , the late-Victorian watergate to the world. Opened in 1894, this symbol of London features pinnacled towers and a linking catwalk which support the mechanism for raising the roadway when large ships have to pass through. When raised, the bridge i
s 40 metres high and 60 metres wide. In its heyday it was opened five times a day. Originally powered by steam, the lifting machinery for raising the roadway was only electrified in 1976. Not all contemporaries were favourably impressed by the new bridg
e, as the following comment in \i The Builder\i0 of 1894 reveals: ô\i What strikes one at present is that the whole structure is the most monstrous and preposterous architectural sham that we have ever known of, and is in that sense a discredit to the g
eneration which has erected it. Far better would it have been to have built simply the naked steelwork, and let the construction show what it really is; the effect, if somewhat bare-looking, would have been at least honest, and we should have been relie
ved from the spectacle of many thousands spent on what is not the bridge at all, what is no part of the structure - but an elaborate and costly make-believe\i0 ö.
