Page 291 [291]
OCR
. 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 magnificence 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 sympathised with Baldwin, the haberdasher, who could not sleep in the country for want of the noise of the rushing waters to which he was accustomed on London Bridge, where he had been born and had lived for seventy years. In 1757, when wheeled vehicles became more and more common and necessary, the houses were removed, and £100,000 were spent on repairs and improvements. 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
