Bridge of Sighs (Cambridge) Bridge of Sighs (Cambridge) The Bridge of Sighs in Cambridge, England is a covered bridge at St John's College, Cambridge University. It was built in 1831 and crosses the River Cam between the college's Third Court and New Court. The architect was Henry Hutchinson. It is named after the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, although they have little architecturally in common beyond the fact that they are both covered. The bridge, a Grade I listed building, is one of Cambridge's main tourist attractions and Queen Victoria is said to have loved it more than any other spot in the city.
Waterloo Bridge on the bridge. In 1844 Thomas Hood wrote the poem "The Bridge of Sighs", which concerns the suicide of a prostitute there. Paintings of the bridge were created by the French Impressionist Claude Monet and the English Romantic John Constable. The bridge was nationalised in 1878 and placed under the control of the Metropolitan Board of Works, which removed the toll from it. Michael Faraday tried in 1832 to measure the potential difference between each side of the bridge caused by the ebbing salt water flowing through the Earth's magnetic field. See magnetohydrodynamics. From 1884 serious problems were found in