CHAPTER V.
THE TOWER BRIDGE.
“Why should they not have a drawbridge?”
“What! To draw up from each bank of the river?”
“No, I did not mean that exactly. Could they not get piers farther in towards the centre of the stream, and let the drawbridge rise and fall from them?”
“The river is too crowded for many piers.”
“It is. But I cannot help thinking a drawbridge—a bascule bridge as the engineers call it—is the best solution of the difficulty.”
“Well, a bridge is wanted sufficiently low to spring from the flat banks of the Thames for foot passengers and carriage traffic, and yet sufficiently high to permit tall ships to pass underneath.”
“And apparently these two requirements are incompatible.”