The impending collapse of Waterloo Bridge (built 1811–1817) in 1923 led to wide-ranging debate among professional and political elites about the need for preserving or replacing the bridge and about London's inadequate river crossings in general. Over a fifteen-year period, cabinet-level discussions on the problem of the Thames bridges occurred every year; the government struck a number of committees and a royal commission on solving cross-river traffic issues. A powerful elite lobby formed to fight for the preservation of old Waterloo Bridge, and the building of a new bridge at Charing Cross, a constitutional squabble arose over the respective authorities of Parliament and of London municipal government over the bridges, and a rancorous debate among politicians, town planners, architects, engineers, and the general public raged over the issue of the existing and proposed new bridges. A number of issues were at play and are discussed, but ultimately this article argues that it was competing, temporally connected conceptions of modernity that divided the two camps into preservationists and rebuilders.

中文翻译：

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“桥梁之战”：两次世界大战期间伦敦城市景观重塑中的时间现代性

1923 年滑铁卢大桥（建于 1811 年至 1817 年）即将倒塌，引发了专业和政治精英之间关于是否需要保护或更换桥梁以及伦敦总体上河流过境不足的广泛辩论。在十五年的时间里，每年都会就泰晤士河大桥问题进行内阁级别的讨论；政府召集了一些委员会和一个皇家委员会来解决跨河交通问题。一个强大的精英游说团为保护旧滑铁卢桥而斗争，并在查令十字建造一座新桥，一场关于议会和伦敦市政府在桥梁问题上的各自权力的宪法争吵，以及一场激烈的争论政治家、城市规划师、建筑师、工程师、公众对现有的和拟建的新桥梁的问题大发雷霆。许多问题都在发挥作用并进行了讨论，但最终本文认为，将两个阵营分成两个阵营的是竞争性的、时间上相关的现代性概念保护主义者和重建者.