The Millennium Bridge, officially known as the London Millennium Footbridge, is a steel

suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...

for pedestrians crossing the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

in London, England, linking

Bankside Bankside is an area of London, England, within the London Borough of Southwark. Bankside is located on the southern bank of the River Thames, east of Charing Cross, running from a little west of Blackfriars Bridge to just a short distance befo ...

with the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

. It is owned and maintained by Bridge House Estates, a charitable trust overseen by the

City of London Corporation The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the local authority of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United Kingdom's f ...

. Construction began in 1998, and it initially opened on 10 June 2000. Londoners nicknamed it the "Wobbly Bridge" and even the " Wibbly Wobbly" after pedestrians experienced an alarming swaying motion on its opening day. The bridge was closed later that day and, after two days of limited access, it was closed again for almost two years so that modifications and repairs could be made to keep the bridge stable and stop the swaying motion. It reopened in February 2002. The bridge is located between

Southwark Bridge Southwark Bridge ( ) is an arch bridge in London, for traffic linking the district of Southwark and the City of London, City across the River Thames. Besides when others are closed for temporary repairs, it has the least traffic of the List of ...

and Blackfriars Railway Bridge. Its southern end is near the

Globe Theatre The Globe Theatre was a Theater (structure), theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 at Southwark, close to the south bank of the Thames, by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men. It was ...

, the Bankside Gallery, and

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery in London, housing the United Kingdom's national collection of international Modern art, modern and contemporary art (created from or after 1900). It forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Live ...

, while its northern end is next to the

City of London School The City of London School, also known as CLS and City, is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private day school for Single-sex education, boys in the City of London, England, on the banks of the River Thames next to the Millennium Bridge, ...

below

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...

. The bridge's alignment is such that a clear view (i.e. a " terminating vista") of St Paul's south façade is presented from across the river, framed by the bridge supports.

Design

architectural design competition An architectural competition is a type of design competition, in which an entity that intends to build new work, or is just seeking ideas, invites architects to submit design proposals. The winning scheme is usually chosen by an independent panel ...

was organised in 1996 by Southwark council and RIBA Competitions. The winning entry was an innovative "blade of light" effort from

Arup Group Arup Group Limited, trading as Arup, is a British multinational professional services firm headquartered in London that provides design, engineering, architecture, planning, and advisory services across every aspect of the built environment. ...

Foster + Partners Foster and Partners (also Foster + Partners) is a British international architecture firm with its headquarters in London, England. It was founded in 1967 by British architect and designer Norman Foster. The firm has been involved in the design ...

and Anthony Caro. Due to height restrictions, and to improve the view, the bridge's suspension design had the supporting cables below the deck level, giving a very shallow profile. The bridge has two river piers and consists of three main sections of , , (north to south) with a total structure length of ; the aluminium deck is wide. The eight suspension cables are tensioned to pull with a force of 2,000

ton Ton is any of several units of measure of mass, volume or force. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses. As a unit of mass, ''ton'' can mean: * the '' long ton'', which is * the ''tonne'', also called the ''metric ...

s against the piers set into each bank—enough to support a working load of 5,000 people. Millennium Bridge August 2020

Construction

Ordinarily, bridges across the River Thames require an Act of Parliament. For this bridge, that was avoided by the

Port of London Authority The Port of London Authority (PLA) is a self-funding public trust established on 31 March 1909 in accordance with the Port of London Act 1908 to govern the Port of London. Its responsibility extends over the Tideway of the River Thames and its ...

granting a licence for the structure, and the

and

London Borough of Southwark The London Borough of Southwark ( ) in South London forms part of Inner London and is connected by bridges across the River Thames to the City of London and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council ...

granting

planning permission Planning permission or building permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. House building permits, for example, are subject to buil ...

. Construction began in late 1998, and the main works were started on 28 April 1999 by Monberg & Thorsen and Sir Robert McAlpine. The eventual cost was £18.2 million (£2.2m over budget), primarily paid for by the

Millennium Commission The Millennium Commission, a United Kingdom public body, was set up to celebrate the turn of the millennium. It used funding raised through the UK National Lottery to assist communities in marking the close of the second millennium and celebra ...

and the London Bridge Trust.

Opening

The bridge opened on 10 June 2000, one month late. Unexpected lateral vibration due to resonant structural response caused the bridge to be closed on 12 June for modifications. Attempts had been made to limit the number of people crossing the bridge, which led to long queues but were ineffective to dampen the vibrations. Closure of the bridge only two days after opening attracted public criticism as another high-profile British Millennium project that suffered an embarrassing setback, akin to how many saw the

Millennium Dome The Millennium Dome was the original name of the large dome-shaped building on the Greenwich Peninsula in South East (London sub region), South East London, England, which housed a major exhibition celebrating the beginning of the third millen ...

. The vibration was attributed to a then under researched phenomenon whereby pedestrians crossing a bridge that has a ''lateral'' sway have an unconscious tendency to match their footsteps to the sway, exacerbating it. This is different from the well-understood problem of ''vertical'' sway, which is why troops stop marching in stride together as a unit when crossing such a bridge. An example is London's Albert Bridge, which has a sign dating from 1873 warning

marching Marching refers to the organized, uniformed, steady walking forward in either rhythmic or route-step time; and, typically, it refers to overland movements on foot of military troops and units under field orders. Marching is often perform ...

ranks of soldiers to break step while crossing.

Resonance

The bridge's movements were caused by a

positive feedback Positive feedback (exacerbating feedback, self-reinforcing feedback) is a process that occurs in a feedback loop where the outcome of a process reinforces the inciting process to build momentum. As such, these forces can exacerbate the effects ...

phenomenon, known as synchronous lateral excitation. The natural sway motion of people walking caused small sideways

oscillation Oscillation is the repetitive or periodic variation, typically in time, of some measure about a central value (often a point of equilibrium) or between two or more different states. Familiar examples of oscillation include a swinging pendulum ...

s in the bridge, which in turn caused people on the bridge to sway in step, increasing the

amplitude The amplitude of a periodic variable is a measure of its change in a single period (such as time or spatial period). The amplitude of a non-periodic signal is its magnitude compared with a reference value. There are various definitions of am ...

of the bridge oscillations and continually reinforcing the effect; the maximum sway was around . On the day of opening, the bridge was crossed by 90,000 people, with up to 2,000 on the bridge at a time. Resonant vibrational modes due to vertical loads (such as trains, traffic or pedestrians) and wind loads are well understood in bridge design. In the case of the Millennium Bridge, because the lateral motion caused pedestrians to directly participate with the bridge, the vibrational modes had not been anticipated by the designers. When the bridge lurches to one side, the pedestrians must adjust to keep from falling over, and they all do this at the same time. The effect is similar to soldiers marching in lockstep, but horizontal instead of vertical. The risks of lateral vibration in lightweight bridges are well known. Any bridge with lateral frequency modes of less than 1.3 Hz, and sufficiently low mass, could witness the same phenomenon with sufficient pedestrian loading. The greater the number of people, the greater the amplitude of the vibrations. Other bridges which have seen similar problems are: *

Auckland Harbour Bridge The Auckland Harbour Bridge is an eight-lane motorway bridge over Waitematā Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand. It joins Saint Marys Bay, New Zealand, St Marys Bay on the Auckland city side with Northcote, Auckland, Northcote on the North Shore, ...

, with a lateral frequency of 0.67 Hz during a 1975 demonstration. * Birmingham NEC Link bridge, with a lateral frequency of 0.7 Hz.

Mitigation

Engineers at Arup, the company that designed the bridge, conducted research into the unexpected oscillation, which they called 'synchronous lateral excitation'. The first laboratory studies used pedestrians on moving platforms at the

University of Southampton The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...

and

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

. Later in 2000, one span of the bridge was instrumented and tested with crowds of up to 275 people. They concluded that making the bridge stiffer, to move its resonant frequency out of the excitation range, was not feasible as it would greatly change its appearance. Instead, the resonance was controlled by retrofitting 37 viscous fluid dampers to dissipate energy. These include 17 chevron dampers – long V-shaped braces under the deck panels – to control lateral movement, 4 vertical to ground dampers to control lateral and vertical movements, and 16 pier dampers to control lateral and torsional movements. Additionally, 52 tuned mass dampers add inertia to control vertical movement. The work took from May 2001 to January 2002 and cost £5 million. After a period of testing, the bridge was reopened on 22 February 2002 and, since that date, has not been subject to significant vibration. In spite of the successful cure, the "wobbly bridge" (sometimes "wibbly-wobbly") epithet remains in common usage among Londoners. File:Millennium Bridge decking underside.jpg, Chevron dampers File:Bridge vert mode shock.jpg, Vertical to ground dampers File:Bridge_horiz_mode_shock.jpg, Pier dampers File:Moving End of Pier Damper of Millennium Bridge, London.jpg, Moving end of pier damper File:London Millennium Bridge - Damper beneath deck, north side - 240404.jpg, Tuned mass damper

Cable resonance

An artistic expression of the higher-frequency resonances within the cables of the bridge were explored by Bill Fontana's ''Harmonic Bridge'' exhibition at the Tate Modern in mid-2006. This used acoustic transducers placed at strategic locations on the cabling of the Millennium Bridge and the signals from those transducers were amplified and dynamically distributed throughout the Turbine Hall of the Tate by a programme which Fontana entered into the sound diffusion engine of the Richmond Sound Design AudioBox.

Repair

In October 2023, the bridge was closed for three weeks to allow repairs to its surface, undertaken by FM Conway. The bridge closed on Saturday 14 October and reopened late on 5 November.

Millennium Inclinator

A short inclined lift, known as the Millennium Inclinator, is next to the northern end of the Millennium Bridge. It was opened in December 2003 to allow pedestrians to surmount the steep slope (13.6°) of Peter's Hill from the riverside to the entrance to the Millennium Bridge without using the alternative flight of steps. The lower end of the lift is on Paul's Walk next to the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after th ...

, and the top end is further up Peter's Hill on the terrace which is level with the deck of the bridge. It was primarily installed for use by those who cannot easily manage the steep steps, such as people with disabilities and parents with push chairs. The lift carriage was originally powered by an electric

traction motor A traction motor is an electric motor used for propulsion of a vehicle, such as locomotives, electric vehicle, electric or hydrogen vehicles, or electric multiple unit trains. Traction (engineering), Traction motors are used in electrically powe ...

, manufactured in Italy by Maspero Elevatori, with a speed of and a maximum capacity of . However, by 2010 the City of London Planning and Transportation Committee decided that the level of service was unacceptable, because the inclinator was frequently out of service due to mechanical breakdowns and vandalism. So the Committee agreed it would be replaced at a cost of up to £750,000 in time for the

2012 Summer Paralympics The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international Multi-sport event, multi-sport parasports event held from 29 August to 9 September 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. They were the 14th Sum ...

. A major renovation project was undertaken in 2012, and the lift was reopened in time for the

Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant The Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant was a parade on 3 June 2012 of 670 boats on the Tideway of the River Thames in London as part of the celebrations of the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. The Queen, Prince Philip and other members of t ...

of 3 June 2012, which took place about a month before the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. The new lift was manufactured by ''Hütter Aufzüge'' of Glinde, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, a lift manufacturer which was taken over by Otis in 2013. Axis Elevators installed the new equipment. Following a redevelopment of the area in 2021 the lift was closed and will be replaced by a platform lift.

In popular culture

* The bridge is featured in the opening scenes of the film version of ''

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ''Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'' is a fantasy novel written by British author J. K. Rowling. It is the sixth and penultimate novel in the ''Harry Potter'' series, and takes place during Harry Potter's sixth year at the wizard scho ...

'', where the bridge collapses following an attack by

Death Eater The Death Eaters are an extremist group from the ''Harry Potter'' series, led by the dark wizard Lord Voldemort. They follow a strict belief in blood purity, thinking that only pure-blood wizards should have power over the wizarding world. Bec ...

s. * The bridge appears in the 2014

Marvel Cinematic Universe The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on List of Marvel Cinematic Universe films, a series of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. The films are based on characters that appe ...

film ''

Guardians of the Galaxy The Guardians of the Galaxy are a fictional superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Comic book teams 1969 team The 1969 version of the Guardians of the Galaxy (1969 team), Guardians of the Galaxy were the origi ...

'' during the climactic battle on Xandar. * The bridge appears in the 2017

Taylor Swift Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Known for her autobiographical songwriting, artistic versatility, and Cultural impact of Taylor Swift, cultural impact, Swift is one of the Best selling artists, w ...

music video for "End Game" from her sixth studio album, ''

Reputation The reputation or prestige of a social entity (a person, a social group, an organization, or a place) is an opinion about that entity – typically developed as a result of social evaluation on a set of criteria, such as behavior or performance. ...

'' (2017).

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * Reaney, Patricia. (6 November 2005). "Why the Millennium Bridge wobbled". ''

New Sunday Times The ''New Straits Times'' is an English-language newspaper published in Malaysia. It is Malaysia's oldest newspaper still in print (though not the first), having been founded as a local offshoot of Singapore-based ''The Straits Ti ...

'', p. F20. * Strogatz, Steven. (2003). ''Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order''. New York: Hyperion Books. (cloth) nd ed., Hyperion, 2004. (paper)

External links

*
Arup's Millennium Bridge site
*
PDF paper
from Arup, discussing the engineering and resonance of the bridge. *

from Taylor Devices Inc on the dampers retrofitted to the bridge * Information about th
GERB TMDs
retrofitted to the bridge.

* ttp://www-g.eng.cam.ac.uk/125/now/millennium_bridge.html A Cambridge University Engineering Department account of the Millennium Bridge problem.(January 2002)
Bing's Image of the Day for 2020-06-10
The Millennium Bridge is featured.
title=London Millennium Funicular Modernized - video of a descent and an ascent using the Millennium Inclinator
{{Authority control 2000 establishments in England Bridges completed in 2000 Bridges in the City of London Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Southwark Buildings and structures celebrating the third millennium Foster and Partners buildings Pedestrian bridges across the River Thames Pedestrian bridges in London Suspension bridges in London Tourist attractions in the London Borough of Southwark Tourist attractions in the City of London Tourist attractions in London Transport in the City of London