White Horse Bridge
The White Horse Bridge is a footbridge that crosses the tracks at Wembley Stadium railway station leading up to Wembley Stadium in Wembley Park, England. It was designed by Steve Chilton for architects Marks Barfield and engineered by Halcrow. It replaced an old concrete footbridge which was probably built for the British Empire Exhibition. The project also included the construction of a public square.
The bridge's name was chosen in May 2005, after a BBC Five Live poll. It is named after a grey Metropolitan Police horse, named 'Billy', that was used to restore order after the huge numbers of spectators who turned up to witness the 1923 FA Cup Final spilled onto the pitch before kick off.
That game, the first to be held at the old Wembley Stadium, was won by Bolton Wanderers, beating West Ham United 2–0.
Unlike the old footbridge, the new structure was designed to cope with up to 12,000 people an hour, the estimated number of users during match days. The bridge and square opened in 2008. They now give easy access from the Chiltern Line to London Designer Outlet.
Naming
In May 2005, the naming decision took place in the form of an online poll hosted by BBC Five Live, in conjunction with the London Development Agency, and won from a shortlist of Live Aid bridge, Sir Alf Ramsey, Sir Bobby Charlton and Sir Geoff Hurst.
The LDA received over 670,000 nominations from all over the world. The name with the most nominations, however, mainly coming from Germany, was Dietmar Hamann, who scored the last goal at the old Wembley Stadium. This was a qualification game in October 2000 for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, with a German 1–0 win against England. The LDA decided to name the bridge White Horse Bridge instead.
