The Hungerford Bridge was first designed by Isambard Brunel as a suspension footbridge in 1845. It was bought in 1859 by the railway company to extend the South Eastern Railway tracks into Charing Cross Station. The suspension bridge was then replaced with a design by Sir John Hawkshaw and it was opened in 1864, walkways were added and taken away as they were considered dangerous for being too narrow and dilapidated.
In 1996 a competition was held to replace the walkways with new structures either side of the railway bridge. Architects Lifschutz Davidson and engineers WSP Group won the design concept. However there were certain complications in the construction of the bridges, firstly was the need to keep the railway bridge fully operational during the construction of the new footbridges, and secondly the problem of the underground tunnels passing only a few feet directly under the proposed foundations of the new bridges. Furthermore, there was also the threat of unexploded World War II bombs in the riverbed. London Underground was unwilling to accept these risks, despite extensive surveys of the area. The design was then modified so that the support structure on the north side was moved out onto Victoria Embankment, instead of originally being within 15m of the tube lines. The complex design of the structure is held in place by exploiting the tensions between the pylons and the various stay rods and struts.
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