Think Millennium Bridge, and everybody thinks London. Of course, everybody has heard about the ill-starred London Millennium Bridge, for all the wrong reasons. In my opinion, it is the most elegant and graceful of all the Millennium bridges in the country (although Lancaster runs a close second). Technically a suspension bridge, the design is unique, with the suspension cables only making a small angle with the horizontal. This design makes for a slim and uncluttered appearance, whilst from the bridge the views of the river up- and down-stream are unobstructed.
The setting of the bridge is superb. Like the Gateshead bridge with the Baltic, the London bridge has a modern art gallery - the Tate Modern at its southern end. To the north, the bridge lines up with the dome of St Paul's.
After a royal "inauguration" on 9 May, 2000, the bridge was "opened" to the public on 10 June but closed two days later.
What was all the fuss about? The large number of people swarming onto the bridge set up an alarming sideways oscillation of up to 70 mm amplitude. The result - the bridge was closed two days after opening and remained closed for more than 20 months whilst the nature of the problem was identified and the solution was sought. Laboratory tests proved inconclusive, so Ove Arup had to deploy large numbers of their own employees as guinea pigs to test the bridge in "live" conditions. The unique design led to the discovery of a previously unsuspected and unreported problem. Large numbers of people on the bridge tended to sway sideways in unison to compensate for the small natural sideways movement of the bridge. This "locked in" to the natural frequency of the bridge leading to an unacceptable amount of lateral movement. The solution finally adopted was to fit dampers under the deck of the bridge, with minimal visual impact on the graceful lines of the bridge. The bridge was eventually re-opened on February 22, 2002. An expensive and worrying time for the contractors - but as they say there is no gain without pain, and no progress without bold design and the occassional hiccup.
For the full story, the Ove Arup website gives an excellent account with no holds barred complete with video clips. A more succinct technical account can be found in the Architecture Week article. The Photoguide to London provides a good picture gallery.
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