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Blackfriars Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge over the River Thames in London, between Waterloo Bridge and Blackfriars Railway Bridge. The north end is near the Inns of Court, and Temple Church, along with Blackfriars station. The south end is near the Tate Modern art gallery and the Oxo Tower.
The first fixed crossing at Blackfriars was a 995-foot (303 m) long toll bridge designed in an Italianate style by Robert Mylne and constructed with nine semi-elliptical arches of Portland stone. Beating designs by John GwynnJohn Gwynn ( 1713- 28 February 1786) was an English architect and civil engineer of the 18th century, and one of the founder members of the Royal Academy in 1768. Born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, he worked initially as a carpenter, but then decided to prac and George DanceGeorge Dance the Younger ( 1741 14 January 1825) was a British architect and surveyor. The fifth and youngest son of George Dance the Elder, he came from a distinguished family of architects, artists and dramatists. Aged 17, he was sent to Italy to prepar, it took nine years to build, opening to the public in 1769Events Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen exhibits the " Mechanical Turk", a chess-playing machine May 14 Charles III of Spain sends Spanish missionaries, who found California missions in San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Monterey and begin the settlem. It was originally named William Pitt Bridge (after the Prime Minister William PittWilliam Pitt the Younger ( 28 May 1759 23 January 1806) was a British politician during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He serve as Prime Minister from 1783 to 1801, and again from 1804 until his death. He is known as William Pitt the) but was soon renamed after Blackfriars Monastery, a DominicanThe Dominican Order (its formal name, the Order of Preachers is less common in English; a member is referred as a blackfriar founded by Saint Dominic in the early 13th century, is one of the great orders of mendicant friars that revolutionized religious l prioryA priory is a monastery governed by a prior or prioress. An alien priory is a priory which is dependent on a foreign mother house, and an alien priory cell was a residence of two or three monks dependent on a foreign mother house but sent to exploit a dis which once stood nearby.
The current bridge was completed in 18691869 is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). Events March 1 North German Confederation issues 10 gr and 30gr value stamps, printed on goldbeater's skin May 10 Transcontinental Railroad completed at Promontory, Utah. May 15 Wo and consists of five wrought iron arches built to a design by Joseph Cubitt . It is owned and maintained by the Corporation of LondonThe Corporation of London is the municipal governing body of the City of London. It exercises control only over the City (the "square mile"), and not over Greater London. The Corporation includes the Lord Mayor, the Court of Aldermen, and the Court of Com. Due to the volume of traffic over the bridge, it was widened between 1907- 1910, from 70 feet to its present 105 feet.
The bridge became internationally notorious in 1982, when the Italian banker Roberto Calvi was found hanged below one of its arches in what was originally believed to be a suicide, but is now officially regarded as a murder.
