INTERNATIONAL: It’s one of the most famous bridges in the world. Tower Bridge in London opens and closes to allow ships to pass through it, and is then supposed to close to allow traffic to go across it, but not since Monday afternoon.
For the second time in as many years, Tower Bridge is stuck. A technical fault has left it sitting open – great for river traffic, not so much for road traffic, with hour-long tailbacks of cars and gridlock on both sides of the River Thames. The City of London says it’s working to resolve the problem as soon as possible, but that might be only later on Tuesday, with a similar problem last August taking just over 24 hours to resolve.
Since 1976, the bridge's two arms or “bascules”, as they’re called, have been operated by electric engines, which replaced the original steam-powered ones that dated back to the 1800s.
