Westminster Bridge wasn't London's second Thames crossing by accident.

For 600 years, the City Corporation's monopoly kept Old London Bridge alone, forcing anyone wanting to cross upriver to pay watermen or walk miles round. When Parliament finally broke their grip in 1736, they chose an unusual funding method: instead of tolls, they ran a lottery. Sir Henry Fielding dubbed it "the bridge of fools" when costs spiralled, and construction dragged on for fourteen years.

The Swiss engineer Charles Labelye made a fatal miscalculation, mistaking Thames clay for gravel and skipping the piles that might have saved his structure. The beautiful bridge captured by Canaletto barely lasted a century before needing complete replacement.

Today's bridge, painted green to match the House of Commons (while upstream Lambeth Bridge sports Lords red), serves as the starting point for tours tracing London's river crossings, Harry Potter filming locations, and Westminster's evolution from medieval government seat to modern power centre.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours use the bridge to reveal London's centuries-old battle between commerce and politics, explaining how a single river crossing shaped the capital's westward expansion.