The west side is near Millbank Barracks, Tate Britain and Pimlico tube station. The east side is near Vauxhall station, and the headquarters of MI6.
The current bridge was designed by Sir Alexander Binnie to replace a previous cast-iron structure. It was completed in 1906, being opened on 26 May by the Prince of Wales, and was the first bridge to carry trams. It measures 80ft wide by 809ft long, has five steel arches mounted on granite piers, and its most striking feature is a series of statues on the bridge abutments, both upstream and downstream, commemorating the arts and sciences.
The previous bridge was the nine-span Regent's Bridge, designed by James Walker and opened in 1816 as a toll-bridge. (The history leading up to the construction of this bridge was tortuous with at least three aborted designs rejected, two by John Rennie - first, a seven-span stone bridge, and then a design with eleven cast-iron arches - and one by Sir Samuel Bentham. The nine-span structure was the first iron-built bridge over the Thames in London).History