Fourteen years after failure of the Westminster Bridge Bill of 1722, a petition was again presented to Parliament by the Burgesses, Freeholders and Inhabitants of Westminster in February 1736, arguing that the great increase in buildings and population made a new bridge essential.
An Act was obtained, Commissioners were appointed, and £5 lottery tickets were sold to raise the necessary £625 000.
The architect of Westminster Bridge was Charles Labelye, a native of Switzerland: the first stone was laid by the Earl of Pembroke, on January 29, 1738-9.
Labelye is credited with the introduction of the caisson method of building foundations, which is said to have been first used on the Westminster Bridge.
It consists of fifteen semicircular arches, the centre seventy-six feet span; it is 1223 feet long by 44 feet wide. It was originally intended for a wooden bridge, and was partly commenced on this principle.
It had two footways, with a ‘Horse Road’ thirty feet across where horses had a sleep climb to the central arch.
The original Westminster Bridge was a stone structure opened in 1750 which was only the second to be built across the Thames where it flowed through the Metropolis.
Westminster Bridge
