A Description of Westminster Bridge
To Which Are Added, an Account of the Methods Made Use of in Laying the Foundations of its Piers

An account from 1751 of the construction of the first Westminster Bridge by its chief engineer, Swiss-born Charles Labelye.

Charles Labelye (Author)

9781108071956, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 21 August 2014

132 pages
21.6 x 14 x 0.8 cm, 0.18 kg

The construction of the first Westminster Bridge, upon which Wordsworth composed his famous sonnet, presented many challenges in terms of the materials and methods with which a sturdy bridge could be built in tidal water and on a gravelly riverbed. A number of candidates presented their surveys to the commissioners of the bridge, but it was the Swiss-born Charles Labelye (1705–62) who was appointed to oversee construction in 1738. The bridge opened to traffic in 1750. This 1751 publication expands upon the shorter work that Labelye had prepared in 1739 to address the laying of the foundations. Significantly, he used caissons - vast wooden structures sunk into the riverbed - within which the stone piers were built. Although the promised illustrations did not appear in this work, the book provides a valuable insight into the technical problems of a major engineering project, and the solutions available at that time.

Preface
A description of Westminster bridge
Appendix
The plan of a work.

Subject Areas: History of engineering & technology [TBX]