LONDON'S NEW BRIDGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21274, 30 August 1932, Page 12

LONDON'S NEW BRIDGE

OPENING BY THE KING FINE £550,000 STRUCTURE MOTORS THEIR NEEDS

Ono rnav now cross London's river by a new way; by the new £550,000 bridge over the Thames at Lambeth. The King opened this fine structure on July 19. Many thousands of the people of London lined the streets along which the King and Queen drove to the new bridge. Two hours beforo the arrival of Their Majesties it was almost impossible to get within 300 yards of the bridge approach. The bridge itself looked its best in the sunshine; very conspicuous in its light grey colouring compared with the bridges above and below it. The big golden caps on the granite pillars at each end of the bridge glowed vividly in the Bun's rays and the schoolchildren of Westminster and Lambeth who lined the footways of the bridge gave a picturesque touch to the scene by their pretty summer dresses.

It was in 1910 that the old narrow Lambeth bridge—opened 53 years ago by King Edward and Queen Alexandrawas deemed to be unsafe and was closed. It had, as a fact, carried comparatively small traffic, but since that time the motor traffic of London has increased so enormously that cross-river facilities have been ever increasingly needed. Tour Men of the Bridge Four men, who for three and a-half years have " enjoyed " the dangers and the ardours of building the new bridge had the proudest —and the most nervy day of their lives on the opening day. They are Messrs. Jock Anderson, the charge-hand steelworker; E. L. Martin, a "sinker" and general labourer; and S. N. Gibbons, foreman mason (all employed by Dorman Long and Co., the contractors); and Mr. R. W. Jones, London County Council clerk ot works. These four, representing every phase of the work on the new bridge* since the start, when the old bridge was demolished, were presented to the King at the official opening. When an interviewer called on Mr. Anderson —" Jock of Lambeth they call him now, although he hails from Glasgow —Mrs. Anderson said he was ' getting readv." Jock, as he adjusted his new tie, spoke about the bridge. "It s tho finest bridge in London now," he said. " I've been on a few, including four years' work on the Newcastle bridge, which was also opened by the King, so I know. Will Last for Centuries " It's strong—it will last for centuries —and it's beautiful, too. I have been on everything connected with the steel part of it. The making of the cylinders in which the men went down, and the makI ing of the cranes which went up. We've had excitements, but I've never known a job that went so smoothly, for there has never been a bad hitch. Here Jock- apologetically retired to do his hair again. His three children are quite as pleased about Lambeth Bridge as he is. It's " Daddy's bridge " to them. As for Mr. Martin, his ambition at the moment is to got on with Waterloo Bridge. When ho was seen at liis home he said: " Lambeth was my first bridge, and I enjoyed the work whatever the weather, and whatever I was doing. bridge-building for me every time now." Mr. Gibbons' toilet was an early one, for he lives out at Heston, and came to Lambeth a long time beforo the ceremony to get acclimatised. He is just as enthusiastic as the others about the-bridge, and has a positively fatherly regard for the shining white which has been his especial care.