A huge challenge faced the City of London Corporation: how to build a bridge downstream from London Bridge without disrupting river traffic activities. To generate ideas, the Special Bridge or Subway Committee was formed in 1876, and a public competition was launched to find a design for the new crossing. Over 50 designs were submitted to win the contract for designing the Bridge.

After the competition was abandoned in 1879, architect Sir Horace Jones teamed up with civil engineer Sir John Wolfe Barry to adapt his previously rejected design. The new design from Jones and Barry was proposed to the Court of Common Council on 28th October 1884 and then to parliament in November 1884 where it was approved. Unfortunately, Jones died one year into the construction and never got to see it finished.

The design of the bridge is not a drawbridge. Drawbridges require ropes or chains to pull up the road, but Tower Bridge’s roads are too heavy to be opened like this. Instead, it is a bascule bridge which means the roads (bascules) move like two giant seesaws and pivot to open and close the bridge. The word bascule derives from the French for ‘see-saw’ or ‘balance’.

Around 31,000,000 bricks were used in the construction of the Bridge and the highest-ever number of Bridge Lifts in one day has been 64.