More than 200 years ago, this canal in London was a critical vein in
the city’s industrial infrastructure, carting goods between Birmingham
and London. The bridge that spans it today would have seemed utterly
bizarre — but a lot has changed since 1801.
Like so many other post-industrial port cities, London has plenty of
waterfront real estate in need of revitalisation, and the area around
the once-booming Paddington Canal was no exception. Beginning in the
early 2000s, the post-industrial neighbourhood became part of one of the largest development schemes London had ever seen — including new office buildings, residential blocks, and plenty of public spaces.
And since the canal itself remained — as well as the odd boat or two —
there would need to be pedestrian bridges. First came one that
rolled and unrolled like a potato bug,
or like something out of an Indiana Jones movie, designed by Thomas
Heatherwick in 2004. Now, another London design team has finished work
on second pedestrian drawbridge — and this one is perhaps even wilder.
It’s called the Merchant Square Bridge, and it was designed by
Knight Architects and
AKT II,
both based in London. Here’s how it works: The 20m long bridge is
divided lengthwise into five distinct steel beams. Each beam is
cantilevered out over the canal with a massive counterweight hidden in
the ground at one side — these are controlled by a subterranean
hydraulic jack.
When the bridge is down, the beams lock together to create a perfect
3m wide path across the canal, handrails and everything. When they’re
raised, they create a twisted steel form, capped off by five steel-edged
counterweights that rise out of the ground at one edge. The architects
describe it as a “kinetic sculpture”.
For the ubiquity of the mechanism used to operate it, it’s got an
ingenious amount of bang for the buck. With a few pieces of expertly
crafted steel, some counterweights and a hydraulic jack, these designers
built a bridge unlike any other in the world.
