London bridges across the river Thames: 9 golden jubilee footbridges

 

 golden jubilee footbridge with the brickwork of Hungerford bridge

the original walkway on the Hungerford bridge (see tomorrow) gained a reputation for being narrow, dilapidated and dangerous – in the mid-1990s a decision was made to replace the footbridge with new structures on either side of the existing railway bridge, and a competition was held in 1996 for a new design

the concept design was won by architects Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands and engineers WSP group 

their construction was complicated by the need to keep the railway bridge operating without interruptions, the Bakerloo line tunnels passing only a few feet under the river bed, and the potential danger of unexploded World War II bombs in the Thames mud

despite extensive surveys of the riverbed, London Underground was unwilling to accept these risks and preliminary works were stopped in 2000 and the design was modified so that the support structure on the north side, which would have been within 15 m of the tube lines, was moved out of the river bed and onto Victoria Embankment - excavation near the tube lines was carried out when the tube was closed and foundations were hand-dug for additional security

the design of the bridges is complex - each of the two decks is supported by inclined outward-leaning pylons with the decks being suspended from fans of slender steel rods called deck stays—there are 180 on each deck, made up of over 4 km of cable—and are held in position by other rods called back stays

the two new 4-metre wide footbridges were completed in 2002, they were named the golden jubilee bridges, in honour of the fiftieth anniversary of Elizabeth II's accession, although, wonderfully, they are still referred to as the "Hungerford footbridges"