It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like London Has a Fancy Bridge Fetish

London is staging a major contest to find a design team for a new pedestrian and bicycle bridge that's being planned as part of the staggering new redevelopment effort along the city's South Bank. On Monday, the London Borough of Wandsworth released 74 design schemes under consideration for the bridge, which will connect Pimlico with Nine Elms and the $12 billion Battersea Power Station development.

If the Battersea Power Station is the "jewel in the crown" of Nine Elms, as U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron puts it, then this cycle and pedestrian bridge would be a royal bauble. The $60 million price-tag is a drop in the bucket, given the scale of change along the South Bank. Strictly speaking, though, is an elaborately designed pedestrian bridge really necessary?