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BBC News Front Page  |  UK  |  In Depth  |  Millennium Bridge
Millennium Bridge
INTRO WHAT HAPPENED? THE SOLUTION
The Millennium Bridge
SPECIFICATIONS

Length: 330m
Width: 4m
Height above river at high tide: 10.8m
Handrail height: 1.2m

Piers: Concrete and steel
Cables: 120mm locked coil
Decking: Aluminium
Handrail: Bead blast stainless steel

Construction: £18m
Modifications: £5m

Watch the bridge wobble (10/6/2000)

The Millennium Bridge opened on 10 June 2000 as London’s first new Thames crossing in more than 100 years. £7m of its £18m cost came from the Millennium Commisison.
The 320m-long structure was designed by the architect Sir Norman Foster with sculptor Sir Anthony Caro and engineers Arup. It was opened by The Queen.
The bridge uses "lateral suspension" - an engineering innovation that allows suspension bridges to be built without tall supporting columns.
The designers predicted it would be a "blade of light" across the Thames, "an absolute statement of our capabilities at the beginning of the 21st century". Within days they closed it to the public.

Tens of thousands of people crossed the bridge on its opening day. The structure was designed to take the weight but suddenly developed a very worrying and obvious wobble.
So what went wrong? And what have the engineers done to prevent the Millennium Bridge from becoming a millennium flop?
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