Waterloo Bridge

The first bridge on the site was designed in 1809-10 by John Rennie for the Strand Bridge Company and opened in 1817 as a toll bridge. During the 1840s the bridge gained a reputation as a popular place for suicide attempts. In 1844 Thomas Hood wrote the poem The Bridge of Sighs about the suicide of a prostitute there. The bridge was nationalised in 1878 and given to the Metropolitan Board of Works, who removed the toll from it. As early as 1884, serious problems had been discovered with the structure of the bridge's piers.

The current bridge, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, was completed in 1945.

Photographer by Horatio Nelson King of London.