Chelsea Bridge
Coordinates: 51 ° 29 ′ 4 ″ N , 0 ° 9 ′ 0 ″ W.
| Chelsea Bridge | ||
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| use | Road bridge | |
| Convicted | Main road 
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| Crossing of | Thames | |
| place | London | |
| construction | Suspension bridge | |
| overall length | 213 m | |
| Longest span | 101 m | |
| start of building | 1935 | |
| opening | 1937 | |
| location | ||
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The Chelsea Bridge is a road bridge over the River Thames in London . It connects the district of Chelsea in the district of Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea on the north side with the district of Battersea in the district of London Borough of Wandsworth on the south side. Battersea Park is located southwest of it , about 140 m downstream the Grosvenor Bridge (Victoria Railway Bridge) and beyond the tracks in the southeast the Battersea Power Station .
The current bridge, opened in 1937, was the first self-anchored suspension bridge in Great Britain . Its predecessor was a chain bridge opened in 1858 .
Suspension Bridge (1937)
After the original chain bridge was no longer able to cope with the increasing traffic, plans were made to replace it with a six-lane bridge, which could not be financed during the depression . The decision was therefore made to build a four-lane bridge, which was built on new, stronger foundations between 1935 and 1937.
Due to the wider vehicles, the lane is now only divided into three lanes, with one of the two lanes leading into the city being reserved for buses, taxis and cyclists.
The suspension bridge is 213 m long and has a span of 101 m. Your deck is 12 m wide; There is a 3.7 m wide walkway on both sides that runs outside the supporting cables.
Each of the two suspension cables consists of 37 wire ropes that are pressed together in a hexagonal profile. The hangers consist of round steel rods that can be adjusted with tensioning screws . The suspension cables are not fastened in anchor blocks as the London clay soil cannot absorb the horizontal tensile forces. Therefore, the suspension cables were anchored to the track girder, which had to be made stable enough to withstand the horizontal forces acting on it. The Chelsea Bridge became the first self-anchored suspension bridge in Great Britain.
Their pylons are simple sheet steel constructions. Since the Battersea Power Station dominates the entire area, it was believed that a special architectural design of the bridge could be dispensed with. Only the lamp posts at the entrances were decorated with curved cantilever arms, the coat of arms of Chelsea and Battersea and a model of a ship on the top.
It was reopened in 1937 by the Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King , because Douglas firs from Canada were also processed in the bridge deck .
| Chelsea Bridge (1858) | |
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| construction | Chain bridge |
| overall length | 214.6 m |
| width | 14.3 m |
| Longest span | 101.5 m |
| opening | March 28, 1858 |
| planner | Thomas Page |
Chain Bridge (1858)
In 1846 a law was passed to build a bridge over the Thames to connect the districts of Pimlico , Belgravia and Chelsea with the planned Battersea Park . From several designs, which included a stone arch bridge and a cast iron arch bridge with seven or five arches, the plan for a chain bridge was finally selected by Thomas Page , who was also responsible for the construction work that began in 1851.
The bridge was a total of 214.6 m (704 ft) long and 14.3 m (47 ft) wide. It had spans of 101.5 m (333 ft) in the main opening and 50.7 m (166.5 ft) in each of the two side openings.
The foundation of the pillars consisted of wooden piles driven deep into the ground of the Thames, reinforced by cast iron piles and surrounded by cast iron plates. On this foundation stood 26.8 m (88 ft) long and 5.8 m (19 ft) wide brick pillars as the basis for the pylons made of cast-iron frames and plates, which were reinforced several times by cross braces and decorated with decorative cast-iron frames and spiers .
The chains were made of wrought iron eye rods , the pendants also made of iron rods. The chains were fastened in 30.48 m (100 ft) long and 15.24 m (50 ft) wide masonry anchor boxes.
The deck girder consisted of two wrought iron 1.83 m (6 ft) high truss girders with cross braces and iron plates. A layer of bitumen mixed with cork was applied to it as the basis for the road surface made of blocks of ship oak .
On March 28, 1858 the bridge, then called Victoria Bridge , was opened together with Battersea Park. The total cost including planning, site supervision, arbitration costs, etc. was £ 94,266. The bridge was subject to tolls until 1879 .
Others
A number of Celtic and Roman weapons and bones were found during the earthworks for the first Chelsea Bridge, leading historians to believe that Caesar was in his second invasion of Britain in 54 BC. At this point the Thames could have crossed. The most important find was the Battersea shield .
With the composition Chelsea Bridge, jazz musician Billy Strayhorn wrote a jazz standard interpreted by many musicians .
Web links
- Chelsea Bridge. In: Structurae
- William Humber: A Complete Treatise on Cast and Wrought Iron Bridge Construction ; Description of Chelsea Bridge , pp. 254-256. Lockwood & Co., London 1870. Digitized on Google Books
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upstream Albert Bridge |
River crossings of the Thames |
downstream Grosvenor Bridge |