WATERLOO BRIDGE

Hokitika Guardian, 29 January 1932, Page 6

WATERLOO BRIDGE

GOVERNMENT’S OFFER

SIXTY PER CENT OF COST

(British Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, January 26

The London County Council has been informed that, if it decides to replace the Waterloo Bridge across the Thames with a new one carrying six lines of traffic, the Government would make a grant of 60 per cent of the cost.’

Waterloo Bridge, built by John Rennie, and opened in 1817, is now the oldest of London’s bridges. It is a massive stone structure of nine arches carrying a level roadway, and is considered one of tlie finest bridges of its kind in the world. It originally cost £552,000. The fate of this bridge, which lias been long debated, is linked with the Charing Gross scheme. The Royal Commission on Cross River Traffic, of 1926, recommended that the bridge should not be demolished, but that four piers and arches should be rebuilt and the remainder under-pin-ned. This was contingent, however, upon the new bridge at Charing Cross, which would have relieved the pressure of traffic. The Charing Cross scheme having fallen through, it now rests with the Comity Council to decide whether it will go back to its pre-1926 plan and demolish the present Waterloo Bridge and build a. new one to carry six lines of traffic.