Waterloo Bridge Doomed
We must apparently reconcile ourselves to the dis- appearance of Rennie's Waterloo Bridge, one of London's finest monuments. The London County Council decided on Tuesday that a new bridge should be constructed and the Ministry of Transport had agreed in advance to accept the Council's decision and to bear 60 per cent. of the cost. We can well understand that the Council, which is responsible for the cross-river traffic, should have become impatient of the interminable controversy about the Thames bridges. It is eight years since Waterloo Bridge had to be shored up and a temporary bridge erected to take half the traffic, and during that time repeated efforts have been vainly made to reach an agreement about a new bridge at Charing Cross. Yet the Council's decision will be widely regretted. The bridge might hate been reconditioned at less cost to carry all the traffic, that the Strand can accommodate, whereas the new and wider bridge will attract more vehicles than ever to a congested Strand, at least until that far-off day when the old problem of a Charing Cross bridge is solved.
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