# Bridges with buildings lining them (e.g. old London Bridge) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 22, 2006, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridges-with-buildings-lining-them-e-g-old-london-bridge/357818 "2006-05-22T21:13:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridges-with-buildings-lining-them-e-g-old-london-bridge/357818/1 "2006-05-22T21:13:32Z")
From 1209 until the 1800s, London Bridge was lined with buildings up to seven stories high, and its population was so high that it was made a city ward with its own alderman. Are there any modern-day bridges which are lined with buildings unrelated to the running of the bridge? By this I mean shops and offices and apartments, not things like toll boths or engine rooms on drawbridges. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridges-with-buildings-lining-them-e-g-old-london-bridge/357818/2 "2006-05-22T21:31:39Z")
Depends whether you mean “built in the modern day” or “still standing in the modern day”. [Pulteney Bridge](http://www.ukattraction.com/west-country/pulteney-bridge.htm) in Bath, England, is just such a one. The URL claims three others in the world, though I’m sure there are more, but doesn’t say where they are. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridges-with-buildings-lining-them-e-g-old-london-bridge/357818/3 "2006-05-22T21:33:31Z")
Ponte Vecchio, Florence? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridges-with-buildings-lining-them-e-g-old-london-bridge/357818/4 "2006-05-22T21:34:12Z")
[Ponte Vecchio](http://www.terragalleria.com/europe/italy/firenze/picture.ital7172.html) is a bigger and better example. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridges-with-buildings-lining-them-e-g-old-london-bridge/357818/5 "2006-05-22T21:36:53Z")
In **jjimm** ’s context, the [Ponte Vechio](http://www.capafresca.com/fotografie/Luoghi/Firenze/Firenze%20Ponte%20Vecchio.JPG) in Florence came to mind straight away. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridges-with-buildings-lining-them-e-g-old-london-bridge/357818/6 "2006-05-22T21:38:12Z")
Bugger you and your faster replies, jjimm 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridges-with-buildings-lining-them-e-g-old-london-bridge/357818/7 "2006-05-22T21:41:56Z")
A very modern example is in Columbus, Ohio, where High Street crosses Interstate 670. [This blog](http://citycomfortsblog.typepad.com/cities/2003/08/i670_cap.html) has a couple of good pictures of it under construction – it’s now completre and occupied by shops, etc. From High Street, it’s hard to see that you are walking/driving over an interstate highway. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridges-with-buildings-lining-them-e-g-old-london-bridge/357818/8 "2006-05-22T21:54:47Z")
Main St. in downtown Lockport, New York, runs over what is supposedly the [widest bridge](http://www.lockport-ny.com/Tourism/canal.htm) in the world or the U.S. depending on source (over the Erie Canal) and you can’t tell because of the buildings on both sides. Rochester New York’s Main St. also had buildings on its bridge over the Genesee River, and tore them down only a couple of decades ago. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridges-with-buildings-lining-them-e-g-old-london-bridge/357818/9 "2006-05-22T22:06:44Z")
Thanks for all the replies! I wonder why there are so few surviving examples of such bridges. Why aren’t buildings on bridges more common? I think it would be awesome to live in an apartment on a bridge. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridges-with-buildings-lining-them-e-g-old-london-bridge/357818/10 "2006-05-22T22:11:23Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > Thanks for all the replies! > > I wonder why there are so few surviving examples of such bridges. Why aren’t buildings on bridges more common? I think it would be awesome to live in an apartment on a bridge. The answer seems pretty obvious to me. Most of these older examples of bridges carried mostly foot or horse-drawn traffic. The exhaust and noise of car traffic, plus the difficulty of passing from one side of the bridge to the other to browse in a different stall/store, seems to make this a tough sell. Also, presumably the bridge was serving a dual function as both a transportation path and a shopping destination (high traffic=good for merchants). People can’t very well stop their cars mid-bridge and check out the stores. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridges-with-buildings-lining-them-e-g-old-london-bridge/357818/11 "2006-05-22T22:14:48Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > I wonder why there are so few surviving examples of such bridges. Why aren’t buildings on bridges more common? I think it would be awesome to live in an apartment on a bridge. In high school, I learned that there used to be buildings built on a bridge over the Rock river in Janesville wisconsin. A fire in one of the buildings damaged the bridge. They had to demolish **all** the buildings in order to build a new bridge. For some reason, there were no buildings on the new structure. ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridges-with-buildings-lining-them-e-g-old-london-bridge/357818/12 "2006-05-23T00:29:38Z")
In general, I think fires are a common reason why they aren’t still around. One place goes up, and it takes out the whole row because they are built so close. The bridge is still fine and now it’s suddenly wider so they decide not to rebuild. And now the bridge has no houses /shops. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridges-with-buildings-lining-them-e-g-old-london-bridge/357818/13 "2006-05-23T01:18:13Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > Main St. in downtown Lockport, New York, runs over what is supposedly the [widest bridge](http://www.lockport-ny.com/Tourism/canal.htm) in the world or the U.S. depending on source (over the Erie Canal) and you can’t tell because of the buildings on both sides. > > Rochester New York’s Main St. also had buildings on its bridge over the Genesee River, and tore them down only a couple of decades ago. A claimant to the “widest bridge” used to be Providence, RI, which had a “bridge” 1100 feet wide and 150 feet long. Calling it a “bridge” rather than observing that they had decked over a section of the Providence River was debateable, of course. At any rate, a couple decades ago, they decided they would rather have a riverfront and demolished it, building several separate bridges, recognizable as such. ---
**Author:** ![Ceejaytee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ceejaytee/32/2956_2.png) [@Ceejaytee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ceejaytee)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridges-with-buildings-lining-them-e-g-old-london-bridge/357818/14 "2006-05-23T15:04:04Z")
My favorite building on a bridge is the old Town Hall in my grandfather’s hometown of [Bamberg, Germany](http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/132529.html). I’ve been there, and it’s really beautiful. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridges-with-buildings-lining-them-e-g-old-london-bridge/357818/15 "2006-05-23T15:28:02Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Bugger you and your faster replies, jjimm 😛 **jjimm** had the faster reply, **GorillaMan** , but you had the better picture. Which my desktop is now proudly wearing, thank you very much. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridges-with-buildings-lining-them-e-g-old-london-bridge/357818/16 "2006-05-23T15:40:28Z")
As a modern example, there are many suburbs here in Sydney where the main street crosses the railway line (which is in a cutting) via a bridge, and the shops continue on both sides unbroken so that you wouldn’t even know the railway line or bridge was there if it weren’t for a tiny shopfront station entrance and stairs going down. I can’t help thinking my city isn’t alone in this - and this is mostly 20th century stuff. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridges-with-buildings-lining-them-e-g-old-london-bridge/357818/17 "2006-05-23T15:48:33Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > The answer seems pretty obvious to me. I’m not so sure I buy your explanations. > [@](#): > > Most of these older examples of bridges carried mostly foot or horse-drawn traffic. The exhaust and noise of car traffic, Traffic noise and pollution is just as much a problem for streets as it is for bridges. In fact, it may be an even greater problem for streets, as bridges are isolated from the surrounding roadways. > [@](#): > > plus the difficulty of passing from one side of the bridge to the other to browse in a different stall/store, This depends on how long and heavily-trafficked the bridge is. But even if the bridge is long, what’s wrong with simply adding one or more pedestrian crossings? Plenty of bridges have stop lights for traffic at the end, or even in the middle in the case of drawbridges. Another stop signal for pedestrians isn’t going to hurt. > [@](#): > > Also, presumably the bridge was serving a dual function as both a transportation path and a shopping destination (high traffic=good for merchants). People can’t very well stop their cars mid-bridge and check out the stores. You can’t park on a lot of major shopping streets either (e.g., Oxford Street in London), but this is no impediment to the thriving shops. Many cities even have huge pedestrian zones packed with shops; needless to say, there is no parking there either. People who shop there either park far away or take public transport. ---
**Author:** ![Fromage\_A\_Trois](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Fromage\_A\_Trois](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fromage_A_Trois)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridges-with-buildings-lining-them-e-g-old-london-bridge/357818/18 "2006-05-23T16:11:37Z")
Another Italian example (not as good as the Ponte Vecchio) is the [Rialto Bridge](http://www.invenicetoday.com/art-tour/bridges/rialto.htm) in Venice. From that page: > [@](#): > > The Rialto Bridge presents two shops lines included in the three stairs cutted by the central kettledrum substained by doric columns. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridges-with-buildings-lining-them-e-g-old-london-bridge/357818/19 "2006-05-23T17:50:47Z")
That’s easy for you to say.