Waterloo Bridge

Replacing the old bridge that was demolished in 1934, the new model affords much better road and navigation facilities.

The bridge consists of girders, continuous over five spans, with a suspended section, 28 metres long, carried by cantilevers in the centre of span three. Reinforced concrete beams under the footways, left the road to be supported by transverse slabs.

To give the maximum headroom for navigation, the depths of the member of the surperstructure was kept as small as possible.

The bridge piers are founded in hard London clay at at a depth of about six metres below the river bed with foundations of solid concrete. The piers are reinforced concrete with a facing of Portland stone except between high and low water levels where they are faced with Cornish granite.

The spans are carried on bearing walls that are 25 meters long and 0.7m thick, which pass down the centre of the piers and are rigidly connected to the foundation. The spans merge into these bearing walls without any intervening rollers or other form of joint.