Big Ben, How it Became a Legend

People have no trouble instantly conjuring the image of the famous clock tower in London when you mention the name "Big Ben," although a lot about the tower is misunderstood. The name "Big Ben" doesn't actually refer to the clock faces or the tower itself - it's the name given to the largest of the five bells that chime the different cadences as the hours tick by, and Big Ben is specifically the hour bell - heard once every hour.

Big Ben was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, Commissioner of Works, who was known for his being a rather hefty fellow, just like the bell, which is the largest that has ever been cast. Big Ben is 8 feet in diameter and it weighs 13.5 tons. The first Big Ben hour bell was complete before the tower, so the bell was hung in New Palace Yard, where after repeated public ringing cracked the huge bell, and it had to be replaced by the current bell.

The casting and placement of the bell was complicated and precarious. It had to be placed in a special wooden frame, turned over on its side, and then hoisted up to the belfry by means of a specially designed pulley system - a process which took over 36 hours to complete. The bell was then put into commission and began ringing each of the hours in July of 1859, but then this bell also cracked after only two months. Instead a recasting and positioning yet another huge bell, they turned it a quarter turn decided to use a lighter hammer to strike the bell each hour

The Palace of Westminster 's clock tower was completed in 1856 and took 13 years to build, and stands 316 feet high. The spire that rises above the belfry is built with an iron frame that supports the weight of the bells. The tower has a staircase for those who want to enjoy the lovely views from the belfry level. A prison cell and several other small rooms are built into the lower part of the tower. The construction of the tower began following a ravenous fire that destroyed the old Palace in 1834. When Charles Barry was offered the contract to rebuild the Palace, he chose to include a clock tower in the structure

To give you an idea of exactly how huge the clock tower is, try these figures on for size: the dials are 23 feet in diameter and each of the numbers on the clock's face are 2 feet tall. The clock's face is a similar to a stained glass window; it is functionally a huge grid assembled from small pieces of opal glass. The clock mechanism was designed by Edmund Beckett Denison and was the largest in the world at the time of its construction. It has performed very accurately over the years, although occasionally when a timing adjustment is needed, technicians place pennies on a small shoulder of the clock's pendulum.

The clock faces are illuminated at night, which makes the clock tower visible to much of London through the night. Many people choose to take evening cruises on the Thames for a night of fun and sightseeing, and there's a great view of the clock tower from it. Many London visitor centers have literature about the local charters and cruises available to tourists.