Tower Bridge Operations Manual: 1894 to date - Insights into the history, design, construction and operation of this London icon

I have purchased a large number Operatives manual and have yet to be disappointed. I love the amount of information they are packed with. I visited the Bridge on my trip to London. I never realized there was so much history sounding the Bridge. I history is your passion, particularly History of England, this book is must have. Believe me when I say you cannot go wrong buying one of the Haynes History or Military series, I own enough of them!

Haynes being the most British of technical publishers, and Tower Bridge being the most British of all landmarks (they only raise it all the way for the Queen, for gods sakes!), it's not terribly surprising this book was published at all. What IS surprising, however, is how detailed and well-rounded it is. My love affair with Haynes has waned over the years, but they've done an excellent job depicting the historical, technical, and operational elements of this masterpiece of Victorian heavy engineering. The fluff which has dragged down many Haynes titles in the past is completely missing and considering the author's impressive credentials, I'm certain this is the most in-depth book on the bridge currently available.The first third is dedicated to some of the attempts at alleviating traffic over the Thames, some of the more unusual designs put forward, the contracting process, and the actual building of the bridge. The middle portion contains the meat of the technical material, with separate chapters devoted to the suspension bridges, high-level footbridges, the bascule bridges, and the bascule operating machinery. Finally, there are brief biographies of some of the men who built the bridge, an overview of changes to the bridge over the years, and an appendix which explains how the author calculated the suspension bridge forces.In terms of the level of technical description, and the quality of the illustrations, this one is one of Haynes's best books in a while. Seemingly minor or out-of-sight details, such as the stiffening girders on the Southern side, bascule locking bolts, anchor blocks, pier foundations, walkway supply pipes, and bridge controls are all described in some form. The weight and dimensions of major components are all listed, as is the cost of each contract, the composition of the bricks used in the pier foundations, the diameter of the pinion shaft, and so on. The color photographs of the present day bridge are excellent and show many areas not accessible to the public. There's also a large number of excellent period illustrations and rare photos of the bridge being built, along with plenty of detailed diagrams from engineering journals and contract plans.Those wonderful diagrams, unfortunately, are also part of this book's only real flaw. Many of them go right through the binding, and as they frequently aren't well placed, important details get lost in the gutter. For that alone, it loses a star. I'll admit that, as a non-engineer, some of the details went a little over my head, although that's not the fault of the author. Thankfully, my childhood hero Stephen Biesty did an excellent exploded view illustration of the bridge in the 90s. Still, I found this to be a fascinated read, and hopefully, Haynes will release more books in the same vein.

I'm a fan of Haynes Operations Manuals, owning several and this particular title is a particularly interesting read.Interesting history, lots of pictures - not just the usual stuff you would expect, but a lot of detail that you might have overlooked. I particularly enjoyed the engineering detail at the back of the book where the author calculates the various forces at work - you'll have to read the book yourself to discover if the forces acting on the bridge in it's current state are within the original design parameters.. The author achieves just the right balance of detail and humour so it's never a dull book about an old bridge.

The author begins by painting a picture of Victorian London. He then describes in great detail, and in a very readable way, how the bridge came to be built. I had a vison of Horace Jones and Joseph Bazalgette driving home, grim-faced, in their carriages from the meeting on 5th December 1877. The meeting was called to discuss possible collaboration between the City and the Metropolitan Board of Works on the design and construction of the bridge. There would be no collaboration whatsoever! As far as I can tell, no other modern book on the bridge offers as much engineering detail as this Haynes manual.

I have always wondered about "what's inside" the wonderful Tower Bridge - now I have the ultimate guide!

Birthday gift for a 14 year old technically minded boy, Plenty to digest including general information on history, construction and design details. He went to read it straight after opening.

Brought this for my father as a top up present as he has always had a haynes manual around, only problem is if you find tower bridge in pieces he 8s liable to loose a few bits