The Thames at London is crossed by the following bridges: London bridge, South eastern railway city bridge, Southwark bridge, Chatham and Dover railway bridge, Blackfriars bridge, Waterloo bridge, Charing Cross railway and foot bridge, Westmin ster bridge, Lambeth bridge, Vauxhall bridge, Pimlico railway bridge, Chelsea suspen sion bridge, Cadogan or Albert bridge, Battersea bridge, West London railway bridge, Putney bridge, and Hammersmith bridge. (The bridges at Barnes, Kew, and Rich mond can scarcely be said to be within metropolitan limits.) Near and between these bridges are about 20 steamboat piers for the accommodation of river passengers. The Thames tunnel, formerly a footway under the river, 1200 ft. long, about 2 m. below London bridge, now constitutes part of the East London. railway. A little way below London bridge is the touer sulncay, a small tunnel for foot passengers. For the accom modation of such shipping as cannot conveniently load and unload in the river, St. Katharine's docks, Londbn doeks, Limehouse docks, West India docks, East India docks, and Victoria docks have been formed on the northern shore; and the Commercial and Grand Surrey docks on the southern. The part of the Thames pit, below London bridge, called the pool, is the great rendezvous for coal-ships; below nit, as far as Blackwall, is the port, occupied by ships of greater burden. Of canals, Paddington, Regent's, iie and Grand Surrey are the chief.
In matters of government London is under very varied jurisdiction. The lord mayor and corporation exercise peculiar powers in the city in referenbe to tolls, dues, markets, the administration of justice, police, drainage, lighting, paving, and a variety of other matters. The city is divided into 25 wards, each represented by an alderman; the aldermen are chosen for life, and are magistrates by virtue of their office. The COMMOIS council consists of 206 members, who, with the lord mayor and aldermen, form a kind of parliament for the management of city affairs. The Hansion house and Guildhall are the chief buildings for the transaction of corporate business. The metropolitan conz missioners of police and the metropolitan board of works have control over the whole metropolis except the city. Westminster and Southwark are each under local authori ties, but only in minor matters. The drainage is managed by- two boards of works, one for the city and one for the rest of the metropolis, and has been improved by a vast and costly system of sewerage, paid for by the householders. Nearly all the drainage and sewage enter the Thames at points 12 in. below London bridge instead of in Londoa itself; the expense of these great works has reached nearly 25,000,000. The gas supply is in the hands of joint-stock companies; and so is the water supply; 'the water being obtained from the Thames, and front the New rivcr, one of its affluents. Both systems are in some degree controlled by the boards, etc., above named. In police jurisdictioa the city of London is entirely distinct from the rest of the metropolis. In 1863 an attempt was tnade by the government to bring all under one jurisdiction; but the oppo sition of the citizens was so stiong that the attempt failed. The city police, about 700 in nutnber, are in 6 divisions, and have 7 stations; there are two police-offices or justice roams, one at the Mansion house and one at Guildhall. All the rest of the metropolis is under the commissioners of metropolitan police, with head-quarters at Whitehall. There are 21 divisions, all but one (the Thames police) denoted by fetters of the alphabet; the full force, officers and men, is about 8,500. There are 14 police courts, attended by 23 police magistrates, for taking cognizance of offenses within the metropolis, but out side the city.
The streets of London, extending, with lanes and courts, nearly 30,000 m. in aggregate length, depend mainly for their direction on the vourse of the Thanies; the principal of them being nearly e. and west. One line of route extends from Hammersmith to 3elile
End and Bow, through Piccadilly, Strand, and Cheapside; another, beginning in the Uxbridg,e road, passes through Oxford street and Holborn, and joins the former at Cheapside. There is still a deficiency of wide thoroughfares for the city traffic; but a new street has lately been made from Blackfriars bridge to the Mansion house—in con nection with the northern or Victoria Thames embankment—the two together forming a wide and handsome avenue froui Westminster abbey to the heart of the city. London la very deficient in wide convenient streets running n. and south. Most of the new streets formed within the last few years are far superior in all respects to those formed fifty or a hundred years ago—except those at the outskirts, which are mostly poor and slight. Regent street and the Quadrant form the finest street in London for general effect; but the most palatial street is Pall Mall, owing to the number of club-houses situated there, most of which are fine buildings. Of the 50 or 60 principal club-houses in London, the Army and Navy, Guards', University, Carlton, Reform, Travelers', Athencsum, United Service, and United University are in this one street. A continuous range of fine shops extends from Pall Mall to Cornhill.
Among the buildings in London belonging to the crown or to the nation, the follow ing are the principal: St. James's palace, an irregular and inelegant cluster of buildings, used for court purposes, but not as the queen's residence. Buckingham palace, the queen's London residence, a large but low quadrangular mass, with very inadequate court accommodation. _Marlborough house, residence of the prince and princess of Wales. _Kensington palace, occupied partly by royalty, partly by recipients of court favor. Houses q f parliament, a vast structure, which has cost £3,000,000; perhaps the finest, and certainly the largest, Gothic building in the world applied to civil purposes; the river-front is 900 ft. long. TVestminster hall, a noble old structure, of which the main hall is 290 ft. by 68, and 110 high. Somerset house, a quadrangular structure with a river frontage of 600 ft.; it is mostly occupied by government offices. The admiralty, notice able chiefly for the screen in front of the court-yard. The horse guards, the official residence of the commander-in-chief, with an arched entrance to St. James's park. The treasury, the home office, the privy council office, and the board of trade occupy a cluster of buildings in Whitehall. The foreign and India offices form a noble new group near Whitehall; and the colonial and other offices are being built inunediately adjacent. The war office, in Pall Mall, a large but plain brick building. The British, museum (q.v.). The national gallery, devoted to a portion of the national pictures, in Trafalgar square. The museum of economic geology, in Jermyu street, a small but well-planned building. Burlington house, appropriated by the nation to the royal academy and to several scien tific societies. The South, Kensington museum, a medley of buildings more remarkable for convenience than for beauty, and filled with a miscellaneous but valuable collection. The guards' barracks, Chelsea. The custom house, with a long room 190 ft. by 66, is finely situated on the river side. The general post-office, a noble mass in St. Martin's-le Grand, has a central hall 80 ft. by 60, and 53 high, with a vast number of offices all around it ; and a large new block of buildings just opposite, finished in 1873. The mint, on Tower hill, is a cluster of buildings in which the gold and silver coinage is managed (a new structure nem. the Thames embankment is in contemplation). The Tower of _London is a confused mass of houses, towers, forts, batteries, ramparts, barracks, armo ries, store-houses, and other buildings, included within a boundary of about 900 ft. by 800, at the extreme eastern verge of the city.