Vauxhall Bridge is a Grade II* listed steel and granite deck arch
bridge in central London. It crosses the River Thames in a north-west
south-east direction between Vauxhall on the south bank and Westminster
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 multiple 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. In 1963 it was proposed to replace the bridge with a modern
development containing seven floors of shops, office space, hotel rooms
and leisure facilities supported above the river, but the plans were
abandoned due to costs. With the exception of alterations to the road
layout and the balustrade, the design and appearance of the current
bridge has remained almost unchanged since 1907. The bridge today is an
important part of London's road system and carries the A202 road across
the Thames.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vauxhall_Bridge>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1829:
The Metropolitan Police of Greater London, sometimes also referred to
as "Scotland Yard" after the location of its original headquarters, was
founded.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Police_Service>
1885:
One of the first practical electric tramways in the world, the
Blackpool tramway in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, opened.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tram>
1938:
At a conference in Munich, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, British
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, and French Prime Minister Édouard
Daladier reached a settlement, signing it at about 1:30 am the next
day, stipulating that Czechoslovakia must cede the Sudetenland to
Germany.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_Agreement>
1941:
The Holocaust: German Nazis aided by their collaborators began the Babi
Yar massacre in Kiev, Ukraine, killing over 30,000 Jewish civilians in
two days and thousands more in the months that followed.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babi_Yar>
1954:
Twelve countries signed a convention establishing the European
Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), currently the world's largest
particle physics laboratory.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERN>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
swagger (v):
1. To walk with a swaying motion; hence, to walk and act in a pompous,
consequential manner.
2. To boast or brag noisily; to be ostentatiously proud or
vainglorious
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/swagger>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is sad not to be loved, but it is much sadder not to be able to
love.
--Miguel de Unamuno
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Unamuno>