Wikipedia:Today's featured article/August 23, 2013

Albert Bridge is a Grade II* listed road bridge over the River Thames in London, connecting Chelsea to Battersea. Designed and built by Rowland Mason Ordish in 1873 as a toll bridge, it was commercially unsuccessful; six years after its opening it was taken into public ownership and the tolls were lifted. The Ordish–Lefeuvre Principle design proved structurally unsound, and thus between 1884 and 1887 it was modified to incorporate elements of a suspension bridge. The Greater London Council carried out further strengthening work in 1973 by adding two concrete piers, which transformed the central span into a simple beam bridge. As a result of these modifications the bridge is an unusual hybrid of three different bridge types. The strengthening works were unable to prevent further deterioration as the result of heavy traffic loads and rotting of the timber deck structure caused by the urine of the unusually high number of dogs using the bridge. In 2010–2011 the bridge underwent major refurbishment work. Although often proposed for closure or demolition, it is one of only two Thames road bridges in central London never to have been replaced. (Full article...)

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