19th-century London (1819), Waterloo Bridge (1817), the Hungerford Bridge (opened in 1845 as a footbridge, and converted in 1859 into a combination footbridge/railway bridge for Charing Cross Station), and Tower Bridge (1894). Further upriver, the new bridges included Lambeth Bridge (1862), which replaced a centuries-old cross-river ferry service, Vauxhall Bridge (opened 1816), Victoria Bridge (opened in 1858 and later renamed the Chelsea Bridge), and Wandsworth Bridge (1873). The impetus for this building was London's massive population growth, which put a constant strain on existing communications between the north and south banks. London Bridge remained the city's busiest artery for the entire century,
Waterloo Bridge first bridge on the site was designed in 1809–10 by John Rennie for the Strand Bridge Company and opened in 1817 as a toll bridge. The granite bridge had nine arches, each of span, separated by double Doric stone columns, and was long, including approaches– between abutments–and wide between the parapets. Before its opening it was known as the Strand Bridge. During the 1840s the bridge gained a reputation as a popular place for suicide attempts. In 1841 the American daredevil Samuel Gilbert Scott was killed while performing an act in which he hung by a rope from a scaffold