London’s River & Bridges Part 7 Tower Bridge to Queen Elizabeth II Bridge

">known as William the Conqueror 1066-87, the Great
Having passed under London Bridge the River thenTower or White Tower as it later came to be called
flows towards Tower Bridge passing on the southwas fast becoming the most talked-about building in
bank the battle cruiser HMS Belfast on the north bankEngland. The White Tower was also the most awe
the Tower of London. HMS Belfast is nowinspiring, and frightening structure to the Anglo-Saxon
permanently moored near to Tower Bridge as apeople who were trying to get used to the rule of their
museum and was opened to the public on 21 Octobernew Norman king, the destroyer of their own ruler,
1971, which was Trafalgar Day (commemorating theHarold II, at the in 1066. Within three months of his
victory og Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar invictory William the Conqueror had begun to build a
1805). The ship saw active service in the second worldcastle on the north bank of the river Thames in
war and was decommissioned from the navy in 1963.London. However, the tower as a whole is a complex
The Tower of London is amongst the most significantof several buildings set within two concentric rings of
buildings not just in London or Britain, but in the world. Itdefensive walls and a moat. The tower's primary
is a World Heritage Site. From its earliest structuralfunction was a fortress, a royal palace, and a prison.
beginnings by its founder William I of England better