Here’s a lucky moment for Throwback Thursday:  the summer of 2008, on the Tower Bridge of London.   They say it brings good luck to witness the bridge opening (it doesn’t happen frequently)–and we were standing right on the bridge for the opening on this gorgeous summer day.

The bridge is iconic, but people often confuse it with “London Bridge”:  Tower Bridge is the visual you get when you think of London bridges, but the London Bridge (actually, a series of bridges over the centuries) originally stood about a mile west of the Tower Bridge. (More importantly, London Bridge continues to stand and fall, over and over and over again, on every children’s playground, everyday, in the Western world.  The origins of that nursery rhyme undoubtedly lay in some historical happening, but that’s a story I haven’t delved into.)

The Tower Bridge  was opened 1892–at a time when London’s population was growing exponentially and a Thames River crossing bridge that could accomodate more traffic was desperately needed.

The beauty of the bridge lies in its appearing  to be made of stone–making it the visual twin of the Tower of London (just beyond it, on the shore).  However, the bridge is actually formed of tons (and tons and tons) of steel. After the steel structure was formed,  granite and stone were added to cover the exterior and create the signature look.

So there you go–a little history and a lucky moment.  Happy Thursday!