There were a number of modern London landmarks created to celebrate the new millennium. These included the London Dome, now known as the O2, the London Eye and a certain footbridge over the Thames. It connected the north bank near to St Pauls Cathedral to the south bank close to the Tate Modern art gallery. It was designed by Sir Anthony Caro. The architects were Foster & Associates and the civil engineering company charged with the actual construction were Ove Arup Civil Engineers.
It was designed as a suspension bridge but the cables did not attach themselves to two high towers as most do, but instead, but to two smaller Y-shaped supports. The reason for this, I believe, was to keep the marvellous views who had of St Paul’s even from across the river.
It was officially opened on the 10th June 2000 and part of the opening ceremony was a gathering of pedestrians walking across the bridge in aid of the charity Save the Children. As they progressed across the bridge, it began to wobble. In fact, it began to wobble a lot. I was there that day and I observed the bridge actually moving from side to side and back and fore. The reason for this of course, was the fact that so many were on it at the same time. The first action the authorities tried was to restrict the numbers crossing at any one time. But it soon became obvious that this idea was unworkable in practice. And so, two days after it opening, the bridge was closed in order for modifications to be made to it. The project took a further two years before it was complete.
The solution was to add dampeners to the structure in order to stop the wobble. It took 52 of them to control the vertical movement and 37 to dampen the sideways movement. Today, the bridge can take up to 5,000 pedestrians at any one time without any movement. The people in charge said that there was never any danger of it falling down but it was felt that the wobble was a bit unnerving to many. There is a discussion whether it would have been a better idea to have left it as it was which would have attracted more tourists to try it. However, even today, if you walk near the bridge you will hear tourists saying that this is the wobbly bridge. So, it is still a tourist draw.
John Pullen 