Designed by engineer John Rennie, the new bridge across the Thames opened to the public with a ceremonial procession attended by the Prince Regent and the Duke of Wellington, exactly two years after the Battle of Waterloo. Built with nine elegant elliptical arches of granite, it was hailed by contemporaries, including the sculptor Antonio Canova, as one of the most beautiful bridges in the world, though it would be replaced by a new structure in the 20th century.
London in 1817 was a city eager to celebrate its recent triumph over Napoleon, and the opening of the new Strand Bridge — promptly renamed Waterloo Bridge — gave the public an occasion to do just that. Engineer John Rennie the Elder designed a structure of nine matching elliptical arches spanning 1,326 feet of the Thames, faced in Cornish granite and considered a marvel of Regency engineering.
The opening ceremony, held on the second anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, was suitably grand: the Prince Regent and the Duke of Wellington himself crossed the bridge amid cannon salutes and cheering crowds. The Italian sculptor Antonio Canova reportedly called it the noblest bridge in the world, worth a trip from Rome just to see it.
The bridge served London for over a century, though its foundations gradually settled unevenly, forcing partial closures in the 1920s. It was ultimately demolished and replaced in the 1940s by a new Waterloo Bridge, built largely by female labor during World War II and nicknamed the "Ladies' Bridge," a very different chapter in the crossing's long history.