London Bridge
Tourists who come to the city of London in the United Kingdom generally make a point of visiting London Bridge, which connects the major part of the city to the southern suburbs in Southwark, sometimes called Bankside. This structure lies between Cannon Street Railway Bridge and Tower Bridge. Up to 1750, it was the only bridge over the Thames River in London. In AD 46 at the site of the present bridge the Romans built a wooden structure. But numerous fires and floods destroyed the connecting planks, and eventually, in the 12th century, a more permanent stone structure was erected. In the centuries that followed, houses, shops, and businesses were built on the bridge surface so that crossing pedestrians could stop and shop while en route between the city and borough. The bridge’s southern gatehouse grew notorious in the 14th century, for it became the site where heads of executed criminals were impaled, dipped in tar for preservation purposes, and put on display. The first prominent political prisoner to suffer this fate was William Wallace of Scotland, immortalized in Mel Gibson’s film Braveheart. By about 1762 the houses and other structures on the bridge were removed due to their tendency to become fire hazards. Finally the old bridge could