MILLENNIUM BRIDGE
Firmly positioned in the 'A list' of London attractions, the Millennium Bridge is a 330m steel bridge linking the City of London at St. Paul's Cathedral with the Tate Modern Gallery at Bankside. In 1996, the Financial Times held an international competition to design a new footbridge crossing the Thames between Southwark and Blackfriars bridges. It would be the first pedestrian river crossing over the Thames in central London for more than a century, opening in time for the first year of the new Millennium. Well, that was the plan anyhow.

The winners of the competition, Foster and Partners/Sir Anthony Caro/Ove Aru & Partners, proposed an innovative and complex structure, featuring a 4m wide aluminium deck flanked by stainless steel balustrades, supported by cables to each side. Such was the interest in the new bridge that when it opened to the public on 10 June 2000, an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 people crossed it. And then the problems began.

Although the Millennium Bridge, like all bridges, was designed to cope with a degree of movement it soon became clear that things were going seriously awry as the deck swayed about like a drunken sailor. So the bridge was instantly renamed as 'The Wobbly Bridge', and after two days of random swaying, swinging and oscillating wildly, the bridge was closed down by embarrassed engineers. After nearly two years of testing, the alterations were deemed a success and the bridge finally reopened to the public in February 2002 - and the swaying was banished forever!