20 May: Kew Bridge

The present Kew Bridge opened on this date in 1903. 10 things you might not know about it:

1. Kew Bridge is 1,182 feet (360 m) long and 75 feet (23 m) wide.
2. It carries the A205 road, and forms a link between the North Circular and the South Circular, which means the bridge can get quite congested at times.
3. It is located in in the London Boroughs of Richmond upon Thames and Hounslow. It is next to the Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew Gardens) on the south side of the river and the former Grand Junction Waterworks Company buildings, now the London Museum of Water and Steam, on the north.
4. There have been three bridges on the site. Before the first one, there was a ferry owned by Robert Tunstall of Brentford. He must have got tired of running the ferry, because he was also the one who had the first bridge built.
5. The first bridge was opened in June 1759 by George, the then Prince of Wales, who drove over it with his mother and various members of the royal family. It was opened to the public three days later and 3,000 people crossed in one day. It was a toll bridge: pedestrians had to pay one penny; a coach and four Horses a shilling and sixpence. In today's money that would be 64p and £17.
6. 30 years later, the bridge needed replacing. In 1782, Robert Tunstall, the son of the first Robert Tunstall, sought permission to build a new bridge. The second bridge was built alongside the first, so that traffic could keep flowing during construction work. This bridge was built entirely of stone.
7. The second bridge was opened in September 1789, again by George, who by now was King George III. He crossed it with a great concourse of carriages.
8. This bridge lasted until the 1890s when it became clear it could no longer cope with the traffic and the Brentford approach was too narrow and steep. The engineer Sir John Wolfe Barry assessed the bridge in 1892 and recommended building a new bridge rather than making modifications to the existing one. This time, a temporary wooden bridge was built alongside to keep the traffic moving while the new bridge was built.
9. The current bridge was commissioned jointly by the Middlesex and Surrey county councils at a cost of £250,000 (£28.1 million in today's money). The engineers were Barry and Brereton and the building contractors were Easton Gibbs and Son. The bridge is built from Cornwall granite.
10. It was opened on 20 May 1903 by King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra and was originally called King Edward VII Bridge. However, this name never really caught on and the name reverted back to Kew Bridge.

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