Modern Day London Icon The Millennium Bridge

London is a city full of iconic structures and buildings that are known all over the world. I’m sure even the Eskimos have heard of Big Ben, Westminster Palace, Trafalgar Square, St Paul’s Cathedral, London Eye, Tower Bridge and Battersea Power Station, to name but a few.

I better not forget to mention London Bridge which must be the ugliest most famous bridge in the world, which is so well known because of mistaken identity! It is really Tower Bridge the confused tourists are looking for, but hell maybe we can swap the names of those bridges over to keep the Yanks happy.

One of my favourite bridges over the River Thames just has to be the Millennium Bridge, which is the latest edition to London’s iconic structures. It originally opened on the 10 June 2000 and was memorable for all the wrong reason, lets just say it had a wee bit of sway to it. The bridge stayed in operation for only few days and was promptly shut down for health and safety reasons.

The Millennium Bridge quickly became known as the Wobbly Bridge, people were seemingly getting seasick during the 2 or 3 minutes it takes to walk across it because it was swaying so much. The architects and engineers went back to the drawing board to figure out where it all had went so wrong. They made a few modifications, spent a bundle of cash and almost 18 months later they were back in business.

I personally think they should have kept a bit more of a wobble to the Millennium Bridge, it would have added a little bit of spice to crossing the River Thames and perhaps made it even more unique!

The Millennium Bridge is maybe not the most beautiful or most inspiring bridge in the world, but never the less it looks nae too bad and in my mind anyway what truly makes this structure stand out is its location. One end of the bridge you have St Paul’s Cathedral and the other you have the Tate Modern.

Standing on the river bank or on the Millennium Bridge itself looking towards St Paul’s is a stunning view, which is probably one of the most photographed views in all of London. Even from the North Bank facing the Tate Modern, which is not quite so well photographed is also a nice place to stop and enjoy your surroundings. And if you are brave enough you can even stop in the middle of the bridge and enjoy the views from there, but you risk being stamped by the hordes of tourists that are always rushing around London as they try to get a brief glimpse of everything.

The Millennium Bridge has definitely and deservedly so, has became a London icon and from its appearance in one those Harry Potter Movies, I have never watched them so don’t ask me, has became kinda well know worldwide.

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