of the road required two new bridges to be built, at Twickenham and Chiswick. The proposal was authorised in 1928 and construction began in the same year. The bridge, along with the newly built Twickenham Bridge and the rebuilt Hampton Court Bridge, was opened by Edward, Prince of Wales on 3 July 1933, and the ferry service was permanently closed. Design The new bridge was designed in reinforced concrete by architect Sir Herbert Baker and engineer Alfred Dryland, with additional input from Considère Constructions, at the time Britain's leading specialist in reinforced concrete construction. The bridge has concrete foundations supporting a five-arch cellular reinforced concrete superstructure. The deck is supported by a concealed lattice of columns and beams rising from the arched superstructure. The structure is faced with 3,400 tons of Portland stone, except for underneath the arches. The bridge is long, and carries two wide walkways, and a wide road. At the time it was built, the central span was the longest concrete span over the Thames. Unusually for a Thames bridge, only three of Chiswick Bridge's five spans cross the river; the shorter spans at each end of the bridge cross the former towpaths. To allow sufficient clearance for industrial barges yet avoid steep inclines, the approach roads are elevated on embankments. The bridge was built by the Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company at a cost of £208,284 (about £ in ). Additional costs such as building the approach roads and buying land brought the total project cost to £227,600 (about £ in ). The Ministry of Transport paid 75% of the cost, with Surrey and Middlesex county councils paying the rest. The bridge was generally well received. Country Life praised the design as "reflecting in its general design the eighteenth century Palladian tradition of Lord Burlington's famous villa at Chiswick". Present-day Chiswick Bridge is a major transport route, and the eighth busiest of London's 20 Thames road bridges. It is possibly best known for its proximity to the finishing line of The Championship Course, the stretch of the Thames used for the Boat Race and other rowing events. A University Boat Race Stone on the south shore, an urban embankment, faces a brightly painted Cambridge and Oxford blues wooden obelisk. This is the end of the course – east of the bridge. The towpath under the bridge on the southern bank now forms part of the Thames