Tower Bridge facts

Tower Bridge is:

• 244 metres (800 feet) long
• Covered in 22,000 litres (5,812 gal) of paint
• Crossed by 40,000 people each day 
• “It looks like a monstrous Gothic toy that ought to be one of the side-shows of an exhibition.” —The Times, on the occasion of the bridge's opening in 1909
• In 1952, a double-decker bus was crossing the bridge when the platform suddenly started to rise. The driver, Albert Gunton, gunned it and actually jumped the widening gap to safety on the other side.