In the 2026 Bridge Madness Tournament, 16 bridges that cross the Thames River in London go pier-to-pier in a reader’s choice tournament to pick the best one. This year’s tournament features bridges visited by urbantraipsing on a 2012 bridge-walking expedition.
Results of the Sweet Sixteen:
Battersea Railway Bridge vs. Tower Bridge – 24% to 76%
Battersea Bridge vs. London Bridge – 43% to 57%
Albert Bridge vs. Cannon Street Bridge – 100% to 0%
Chelsea Bridge vs. Southwark Bridge – 67% to 33%
Grosvenor Bridge vs. Millennium Bridge – 38% to 62%
Vauxhall Bridge vs. Blackfriars Bridge – 33% to 67%
Lambeth Bridge vs. Waterloo Bridge – 92% to 8%
Westminster Bridge vs. Jubilee Bridges – 58% to 42%
Below are the brackets for the Elite Eight. Remember to vote for one bridge in each bracket by noon on Saturday, March 14th, and then return on March 15th to vote for the Final Four.
To learn more about the bridges, revisit the introduction which has links to posts on each bridge.
In the 2026 Bridge Madness Tournament, 16 bridges that cross the Thames River in London go pier-to-pier in a reader’s choice tournament to pick the best one. This year’s tournament features bridges visited by urbantraipsing on a 2012 bridge-walking expedition. Below are the brackets for the Sweet Sixteen. Remember to vote for one bridge in each bracket by noon on Saturday, March 7th, and then return on March 8th to vote for the Elite Eight.
To learn more about the bridges, revisit the introduction which has links to posts on each bridge.
In the 2026 Bridge Madness Tournament, 16 London bridges go pier-to-pier in a reader’s choice tournament to pick the best one. I engaged with approximately 18 bridges across the River Thames on my last trip to London. Because the Blackfriars Station Railway Bridge was under construction when I was there, it is not included in this tournament. The Jubilee-Hungerford Bridges are either 1 or 3 bridges depending on how you count them. For the purposes of this tournament, we are counting them as 1 bridge to stay with our usual 16 tournament bridges.
Beginning March 1, you will be able to vote for your favorite bridge in each bracket. The champion bridge will be announced on March 29. Don’t forget to come back each week to vote your favorite bridge to #1!
Each round of voting will go live at 8 AM on the scheduled Sunday and close at noon the following Saturday. The schedule is:
March 1 – Sweet Sixteen
March 8 – Elite Eight
March 15 – Final Four
March 22 – Championship
March 29 – Winner announced
The 16 London Bridges in this tournament are listed below. Click on the links to learn more about urbantraipsing’s encounter with each 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.
urbantraipsing 