In the 2025 Bridge Madness Tournament, 16 suspension bridges go pier-to-pier in a reader’s choice tournament to pick the best one. This year’s tournament features suspension bridges visited by urbantraipsing nationally and internationally.
Results of the Elite Eight:
6th Street Bridge vs. 7th Street Bridge – 64% to 36%
Brooklyn Bridge vs. Manhattan Bridge – 44% to 56%
Albert Bridge vs. Golden Gate Bridge – 51% to 49%
Mid-Hudson Bridge vs. Tower Bridge – 79% to 21%
Below are the brackets for the Final Four. Remember to vote for one bridge in each bracket by noon on Thursday, March 20th, and then return on March 22th to vote for the Championship.
The bridges are divided into two conferences: New York City and Great Lakes Region vs. National and International. To learn more about the bridges, revisit the introduction which has links to posts on each bridge.
New York City and Great Lakes Region
6th Street Bridge – PittsburghManhattan Bridge – New York City
National and International
Albert Bridge – LondonMid-Hudson Bridge – Poughkeepsie
In the 2025 Bridge Madness Tournament, 16 suspension bridges go pier-to-pier in a reader’s choice tournament to pick the best one. This year’s tournament features suspension bridges visited by urbantraipsing nationally and internationally.
Results of the Sweet Sixteen:
6th Street Bridge vs. Roebling Suspension Bridge – 52% to 48%
7th Street Bridge vs. Wheeling Suspension Bridge – 60% to 40%
9th Street Bridge vs. Brooklyn Bridge – 28% to 72%
South 10th Street Bridge vs. Manhattan Bridge – 16% to 74%
Albert Bridge vs. Lions Gate Bridge – 58% to 42%
Chelsea Bridge vs. Golden Gate Bridge – 35% to 65%
Jubilee Bridges vs. Mid-Hudson Bridge – 10% to 90%
Tower Bridge vs. Bosphorus Bridge – 83% to 17%
Below are the brackets for the Elite Eight. Remember to vote for one bridge in each bracket by noon on Thursday, March 13th, and then return on March 15th to vote for the Final Four.
The bridges are divided into two conferences: New York City and Great Lakes Region vs. National and International. To learn more about the bridges, revisit the introduction which has links to posts on each bridge.
New York City and Great Lakes Region
6th Street Bridge – Pittsburgh7th Street Bridge – PittsburghBrooklyn Bridge – New York CityManhattan Bridge – New York City
National and International
Albert Bridge – LondonGolden Gate Bridge – San FranciscoMid-Hudson Bridge – PoughkeepsieTower Bridge – London
In the 2025 Bridge Madness Tournament, 16 suspension bridges go pier-to-pier in a reader’s choice tournament to pick the best one. This year’s tournament features suspension bridges visited by urbantraipsing nationally and internationally. Below are the brackets for the Sweet Sixteen. Remember to vote for one bridge in each bracket by noon on Thursday, March 6th, and then return on March 8th to vote for the Elite Eight.
The bridges are divided into two conferences: New York City and Great Lakes Region vs. National and International. To learn more about the bridges, revisit the introduction which has links to posts on each bridge.
New York City and Great Lakes Region
6th Street Bridge – PittsburghRoebling Suspension Bridge – Cincinnati7th Street Bridge – PittsburghWheeling Suspension Bridge – Wheeling9th Street Bridge – PittsburghBrooklyn Bridge – New York CityS. 10th Street Bridge – PittsburghManhattan Bridge – New York City
National and International
Albert Bridge – LondonLions Gate Bridge – VancouverChelsea Bridge – LondonGolden Gate Bridge – San FranciscoJubilee Bridges – LondonMid-Hudson Bridge – PoughkeepsieTower Bridge – LondonBosphorus Bridge – Istanbul
Pittsburgh’s Charles Anderson Bridge closed to vehicles indefinitely pending restorationPittsburgh’s Swindell Bridge closed to vehicles indefinitely pending restoration
Pittsburgh isn’t alone in being home to bridges on the verge of collapsing. This year marks the 200th anniversary of London’s Hammersmith Bridge, which has been closed to vehicular traffic for five years after cracks threatening the stability of the bridge were discovered. The bridge was temporarily closed to pedestrians and cyclists crossing over and river traffic crossing under, but those restrictions have been lifted. Except cyclists are required to dismount and walk across. (Transport for London: Hammersmith Bridge) Work is slowly being done on the bridge, but there is no estimate for when it will be fully functional again. Part of the delay appears due to the decentralization of bridge ownership in London that puts the burden of costly bridge maintenance and repairs on local councils that don’t have sufficient funds (The Standard, July 5, 2023). Much as I enjoy walking across bridges, I would have second thoughts about walking one where the vibrations caused by a cyclist might increase the damage to the bridge.
As if there weren’t already enough crises, London’s bridges were “falling down” in 2020. Three were closed for vital repairs. Hammersmith Bridge remains suspended in limbo while the other two, London Bridge and Vauxhall Bridge, reopened after months of work. Yet, none are totally in the clear. London Bridge’s reopening included significant daytime traffic restrictions. Traffic restrictions may be implemented for Vauxhall Bridge, if money cannot be found for more repairs. Financial straits threaten Hammersmith Bridge as well. It was first closed to vehicular traffic in April 2019 and closed to all traffic, pedestrian and bicycles over and boat traffic under, in August 2020 due to widened cracks feared to portend imminent collapse. The estimate to repair this bridge is £140 million and nearly seven years of work.
London Bridge is falling down,
Falling down, falling down,
London Bridge is falling down,
My fair Lady.
In my experiences walking bridges, it seems common to wait until a bridge is almost falling down to invest in it. It appears politically unappealing to direct funds to maintaining bridges, so we live in a world with a dire refrain of our collapsing infrastructure.
Build it up with bricks and mortar,
Bricks and mortar, bricks and mortar,
Build it up with bricks and mortar,
My fair Lady.
Bricks and mortar will not stay,
Will not stay, will not stay,
Bricks and mortar will not stay,
My fair Lady.
In Pittsburgh, bridges are often left to run the course of their lives without regular maintenance, then are replaced with a new bridge. The resulting demolition ceremonies and ribbon cuttings make splashy political news stories. The river bridges are an exception. Probably because of their character and contribution to the city’s photogenetic downtown, they are occasionally partially or completely closed for maintenance.
Build it up with iron and steel,
Iron and steel, iron and steel,
Build it up with iron and steel,
My fair Lady.
Iron and steel will bend and bow,
Bend and bow, bend and bow,
Iron and steel will bend and bow,
My fair Lady.
London’s river bridges have more history and, sometimes, more character than Pittsburgh’s bridges. Hammersmith Bridge is one of the city’s unique and historical bridges. The steep price tag to repair this bridge, perhaps the result of mounting deferred maintenance, begs the question of at what point in the decades of non-investment is the threshold crossed beyond which repair is no longer an option.
Build it up with silver and gold,
Silver and gold, silver and gold,
Build it up with silver and gold,
My fair Lady.
Silver and gold will be stolen away,
Stolen away, stolen away,
Silver and gold will be stolen away,
My fair Lady.
The decades of neglect in Pittsburgh and London overlooks bridges’ frequent role as practical infrastructure built to assist in crossing an obstacle. Even temporary closings can cause extreme headaches and delays to those who rely on the bridge. Hammersmith Bridge was left to deteriorate so long, it had to be closed before a plan was in place. As funds and a repair approach are sought, the residents and businesses of Hammersmith continue to be seriously inconvenienced by not being able to cross the river close to home.
The last bridge in London I walked over was the Tower Bridge. It is by far the most elaborate bridge across the Thames. I had assumed it was also the oldest of the bridges I walked in London. It turns out that this was a false assumption. The current Tower Bridge was built in the 1890s. According to the dates I found online, Southwark Bridge (see Aug 5 post) is the oldest existing bridge I walked having opened in 1819.
The Tower Bridge is the last bridge across the Thames before it empties into the sea. The view downstream gives some indication of this as there are no bridges in sight and the views from all the other bridges showed either another vehicular bridge, underground bridge, or pedestrian bridge. That the Tower Bridge is the end of the bridges over the Thames is somewhat surprising to me because as the crow flies the mouth of the river is nearly forty miles away and as the river flows is even farther. There are some tunnels under the river between the Tower Bridge and the sea, including at least one pedestrian tunnel. I considered walking the pedestrian tunnel, but the idea of walking through a tunnel under a river seemed long, dark, and scary, and as I had already walked myself off my feet, I chose not to.
Some of the oldest parts of the city are near the Tower Bridge. The northern shore is where the infamous Tower of London is located. The Tower itself was built in 1078. Crossing the bridge and turning right are several very narrow, medieval-like lanes. Yet right near this old fabric is a very new development, situated almost directly across the Thames from the Tower of London, which from this view seems to include the controversial Shard skyscraper. The Shard is located near the end of the London Bridge so I believe there must be some separation between the new buildings in the foreground and the skyscraper. I understand that there is some controversy over the building as many people believed it was too close to the older fabric of the city where they wanted to maintain the historical building heights. In the midst of the historic neighborhoods I observed this skyscraper looms up as the current tallest building in Europe. According to an article about the official opening of the building on July4, one of the many features of this building is “double-decker lifts.” I feel like that is the kind of thing that I’m going to have to see it to believe it. How would a two-story elevator work? And why would you want a two-story one? I think it would only complicate things.
So ends the story of my journey walking across 13 bridges in London. Hope you’ve enjoyed it! For those interested in bridges, stay tuned as I continue to walk bridges in Pittsburgh and other cities. For those interested in London, I plan to post about the adaptively reused churches I found in London in the near future.
London Bridge, perhaps the most famous of the bridges I walked because it fell down, rivaled the Waterloo Bridge for boring-ness (see July 29 post). Both were similarly plain concrete structures. The London Bridge is slightly more interesting for having a dedicated bus lane, but I can’t stand the maroon color of the bus lanes. Luckily the surroundings were more interesting than those at the Waterloo Bridge.
I loved the geometry of these buildings visible from the London Bridge. I went onto Google Maps to try and discover what they are as I did for Lambeth Bridge (see June 28, and Maps are Awesome! posts), but when I did, I found that Google Maps has the London Bridge miss-labeled. The pinpoint for London Bridge sits right on top of the Tower Bridge. As I mentioned in my Waterloo Bridge post, I had also at one time mistaken the Tower Bridge for the London Bridge. While the London Bridge is the most famous in song, the Tower Bridge is the most famous in images. I believe that it for this reason–that both bridges are the most famous in London, but in different media–that they get mistakenly identified. (For some reason it is hard to imagine that there might be more than one famous bridge in London.)
The pointy building in the background is the London offices of Zurich, an insurance company. The blue glass building houses Northern and Shell, a media company. Next to that building and lower down is the Old Billingsgate Market, which used to house the largest fish market in the world (the market moved to Canary Wharf area, but is still the largest in the UK based on its website).
A battleship was parked in between the London and Tower bridges. At first, I thought it was the battleship I saw on the news in the days before walking the bridge as the one moving up the Thames in an exercise to practice for the Olympic security measures. Afterwards, I realized that this one (the HMS Belfast) was probably a permanent fixture and had not just traveled up the Thames. It turns out I was correct the second time as the HMS Belfast is now part of the Imperial War Museums.
The Southwark Bridge had the most, or at least slowest, vehicular traffic of any of the bridges I walked in London. It was also the only one with a painted bike lane. I believe this lane is part of London’s Cycle Superhighway system. These bike lanes are intended to make bike travel to central London from the surrounding areas easier (see website). I really liked the bright blue color of these lanes. It is highly visible and makes it quite clear this is not a place for cars. Of course I am sure it costs a lot to paint miles of bike lanes solid.
The little domes on this building had been visible to me long before I saw the rest of the building. I was in anticipation for several days to learn what it was. I assumed it would be something really interesting like a church built by Eastern European immigrants, in which case its prominent location on the waterfront would led to a fascinating story, I’m sure. Consequently I was a little disappointed to learn that it was only a train station. (Note: I learned what the building was while on the Southwark Bridge, but the view above was taken from the London Bridge on the other side of the station from Southward Bridge.)
In this view upstream, the Millennium Bridge, which was so photogenic from the other angles (see Aug 2 post), becomes invisible against the background of the Blackfriar’s Rail Station spanning the Thames (see Blackfriar’s Bridge post).
The Millennium Bridge is the first of two pedestrian bridges that cross the Thames. The second, the Jubilee Bridge (click to see post), opened 3 years later in 2003. While the Millennium Bridge is sadly only one color, I think it was probably the most photogenic bridge I walked in London. Although I like the picture above less for the bridge and more for the buildings behind it, which show the city’s transition from a time when church steeples were the tallest thing around to today when that honor belongs to the skyscrapers.
The location of the bridge was very good. It leads directly to St. Paul’s Cathedral. In some ways I am surprised that it wasn’t until 2000 that a bridge was built at this location. (I picked up some souvenir maps while in London depicting the city in 1520, 1666, 1843 and 1902 and none have a bridge or even ferry boat at this location.) On the other hand, the other side of the bridge connects to the Tate Modern, which didn’t open as the international modern and contemporary art museum until 2000. Before then the site was a power plant from 1947 until 1981 when it became redundant and closed, remaining vacant until the Tate took it.
The views from the Millennium Bridge show two things of interest related to the other city bridges. First, upriver is a view of the first rail station to span the Thames and the longest solar bridge in the world (see July 31 post). Downriver, the Tower Bridge, which I believe is the most iconic London bridge, comes into view for the first time.
I started this post by claiming that the Millennium Bridge was the most photogenic of the London bridges. The views of it above are pretty interesting, but the best shot was the one I took from the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral looking down.
One thing that stuck out to me while in London was the amount of construction going on. It seemed like everywhere I went in the city there were cranes and/or something was being built, and I didn’t go anywhere near any of the sites for the Olympics. While on the bridges, cranes could often be seen at a distance, but the Blackfriars Bridge seemed to be in the heart of a construction area.
Cranes can be seen on the southern shore in the first image above. The downriver view from the bridge was completely blocked and will remain blocked by “London’s first station to span the Thames.” At first I find this very annoying, as I think there would be a good view of the city looking downstream from Blackfriars Bridge. However, building a station over the Thames is actually an interesting idea. In a city as dense as London there isn’t much room for expansion. There doesn’t appear to be anywhere else this close to the heart of the city to build a new large station. The rail website explains that this station, which is being built on top of a Victorian railway bridge, will allow for longer commuter trains and improve access to the Tate Modern and the Globe Theater. Another piece of note about the bridge is that it is being fully equipped with solar panels and will be the longest solar bridge in the world. Apparently, the competition for the title “World’s Longest Solar Bridge” is not particularly tough at the moment as there is only one other known solar bridge in the world which is the pedestrian Kurilpa Bridge in Australia.
My favorite part about this revamped railway bridge is that it challenges the function of a bridge. Today, most bridges function simply as a way to get from point A to point B. One exception to this is the Galata Bridge in Istanbul (see June 25 post). I remember seeing and using a bridge in Bath, England, when I was a kid that had shops on both sides so that you couldn’t even tell you were on a bridge while crossing it. Bridges like this seem to have been popular in medieval Europe. In a class I took on the history of cities, we looked at medieval Paris which had multiple bridges with buildings lining both sides. Perhaps with the invention of transportation technologies that permit sprawling cities, there is no reason to use bridges as anything more than a connector.
I suppose if there were more bridges with mixed functions like carrying shops as well as roads, then there would be less great views, still it’s an interesting concept. Bridges often end up adding to the dead space of a city, but this might be more because of what they connect than because of their function to move people along.
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