The Thames Barge Driving Race under oars' or "sweeps" and ride tidal river currents alone, up river. The event commemorates the skills of lightermen who moved freight this way along the Thames up until the 1930s and in a wider context it encourages ongoing interest in moving cargo via water and as a way to recruit younger people back into river trades.The teams are normally made up of employees of Thames Lighterage companies, Port of London Authority or are sponsored by local businesses. The best places to view the race are Tower Bridge, London Bridge and Westminster Bridge. During the 1970s Britain suffered a major
19th-century London averaging 22,242 vehicle and 110,525 pedestrian crossings per day in 1882. More than 30 petitions were submitted to various authorities between 1874 and 1885 requesting that the 54 foot wide London Bridge be widened, or a new bridge built, to relieve congestion. This resulted in the commission of Tower Bridge by Act of Parliament in 1885. When it was completed in 1895, the Bascule bridge designed by Sir Horace Jones was an engineering marvel which solved the conundrum of how to bridge the Thames downriver from London Bridge without inhibiting shipping in the Pool of London. By featuring a 200