A hundred years ago
From the 'Spectator'. 16 October 1869— London Bridge is choked with the traffic on it, and the City Council has been considering and rejecting all manner of expensive proposals for widening it. Foot passengers especially suffer. They are often in danger, and as Mr M`George pointed out, the balustrades being solid, the bridge is a dust-trap in good weather, and a ditch in bad. Will the Builder tell us if there is any final reason why a bridge like London Bridge should not have a second story put on it—a wooden bridge like a railway crossing,. supported on iron pillars let into the buttresses, and reserved for pedestrians? No work in water would be necessary for that, and cabs would gain the space now occupied by the trottoirs. Must such a second story be too ugly for human endurance?
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