London cable car takes flight

The Emirates Air Line, the UK’s first urban cable car, has started a daily service which offers a brand new way of crossing the River Thames.

This latest addition to the capital’s transport network connects the North Greenwich peninsula with the Royal Docks on the north side of the river, providing a link between the O2 Arena and the ExCeL exhibition venue.

Supported by three steel towers, two of which are 90m tall, the cable car travels 1.1km between its two termini. In all, more than 1,100t of structural steelwork was needed for the project, all of which was fabricated, supplied and erected by Watson Steel Structures.