Tower Bridge unveils glass floor walkways over the Thames

Video: The new walkways will give Londoners and tourists alike a new perspective from which to view the city

A visitor crosses Tower Bridge's new glass walkway on November 10, 2014 in London, England. Unveiled today the glass floor panels along the bridge's high-level walkways weigh 300 kgs each, cost £1m and will give visitors a new view over the historic bridg (Peter Macdiarmid | Getty Images)

Tower Bridge unveiled two new glass floor walkways in the most significant development to the Bridge Experience since it first opened to the public in 1982.

The walkways are 42 metres above the River Thames and measure 11.5 metres long and 1.8 metres wide. Each of the glass panels in the walkways weigh 500kg and the whole project cost £1m to implement.

While today marked the opening of the West walkway, the East walkway will not open until Monday 1 December.

The new walkways give Londoners and tourists a whole new angle to view London from, providing a stunning view of the bascule bridge when it opens to allow river traffic through. Londoners will be able to see the bridge rise from above.

Chris Earlie from Tower Bridge said, "You can walk around anywhere in London – London Bridge, Tower of London – and see the Bridge raise, see that awesome sight. But the one place that you can’t see that is inside the attraction itself, inside the Bridge.

"Well we've changed that. You can now stand directly above the two bascules, you can watch them raise beneath you and you can see river traffic moving below which is quite an experience."

Tower Bridge took eight years to build and was opened in 1894.