Tower Bridge Engine Room Heritage

The preserved Victorian steam machinery beneath Tower Bridge, the bascule bridge over the Thames at the Pool of London, opened 1894. The original engine room held coal-fired boilers and steam engines that drove hydraulic accumulators to raise the two bascules for ship traffic; the steam system ran until 1976, when electro-hydraulic drive replaced it. The Tower Bridge Exhibition displays the original engines and the high-level walkways above the river.