Stranica 291 [291]
. FEE fe
me pay A
Pie CITY AS. AT ÍS "269
Middle Ages was the great pride of the citizens. It was covered with
houses, as I have already said, and its vast height, its gay shops, the
water-wheels, and the magnifi¬
cence of the chapel and of some |
other buildings, made " As fine fű ne ie
as London Bridge” into a } AS
proverb. Everybody of any
sensibility must have sym¬
pathised with Baldwin, the
haberdasher, who could not
sleep in the country for want
of the noise of the rushing
waters to which he was accus¬
tomed on London Bridge,
where he had been born and
had lived for seventy years.
In 1757, when wheeled vehicles
became more and more com¬
mon and necessary, the houses
were removed, and £100,000
were spent on repairs and im¬
provements. Nevertheless, as
time went on, the need of a
wholly new bridge became 4 Bu:
" Fo i ts
3 : 4
® o 1
i I os. wk - - Sz fenn
ae ~ (>> ~ j jé we .
i i =A i ad ta
ad ~~,
a 4)
St
34 i a wie 3
vs. ha the ;
eze s
apparent, if only on account of
te
‘
a
the obstruction to the river mn Ha a
navigation made by the great WATLING STREET
piers and the numerous consequent accidents. In 1823 power was
obtained from Parliament. The first pile of the present bridge, as
designed by Rennie, was driven in March 1824, and the whole structure