LONDON BRIDGE

children's singing game in which there are several players (eight or more), two of whom join hands high to form an arch (the bridge). The other players march under the bridge, each holding onto the waist of the player in front. Either the bridge or all players sing: London Bridge is falling down, / Falling down, falling down, / London Bridge is falling down, / My fair lady. At the last word, the arms of the bridge are lowered to capture the last player through. The song continues with more stanzas. In the modern game, which dates back to 17th-century England and to the 16th-century continental European fallen bridges games, as the players are captured, they are kept in an area called the Tower of London, and at the end of the game they are chased by the bridge. The first two caught form the next bridge. In the earlier game, captured players went to alternate sides, forming two teams, and a tug-of-war followed. In the original game, each prisoner paid a forfeit, possibly a vestigial remnant of the old folk superstition that a bridge would only stand after the death of a sacrifice. The song has numerous variant stanzas, sung while the prisoners are being captured, such as Build it up with iron bars; Iron bars will bend and break; and Get a man to watch all night. The name of the game also varies in different locations: broken bridges (Scotland); Die Goldene Brcke (Germany); Le Pont-Levis (France); and Charlestown Bridge (New England). London Bridge is treated in sections 43 and 44 of the unsigned article London in the 3rd edition (178897) of Encyclopdia Britannica. This account details the succession of structures known as London Bridge, including New London Bridge (which spanned the Thames from the 1820s until the 1960s, when it was dismantled, shipped to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, U.S., and reassembled). The text is presented in modern typography for ease in reading but otherwise retains the original spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and italicsincluding typographical errors. London Bridge See also the current Britannica articles London Bridge and London. For a collection of similar historical documents, see BTW: London Classics. any of several successive structures spanning the River Thames between Borough High Street in Southwark and King William Street in the City of London. David P. Billington