First of three cablecar towers completed at Royal Docks

The first steel tower for London’s new cable car service ready to whisk passengers across the Thames has been completed.

Cable car link "under construction" now appearing on London Underground map

The cable car will give passengers stunning aerial views 200ft above the river between east London’s Royal Docks and the Greenwich Peninsular.

The service, due to start next year, directly links ExCeL, Europe’s biggest conference venue, to the O2, Europe’s biggest entertainment complex.

The ‘intermediate’ tower at West Silvertown is the first of three to be fully erected, weighing 270 tonnes—the smallest of the three white structures that will soon cast their shadow across the east London skyline.

Two more will be rising in the coming months, with completion due late spring, each made of 6,500 steel pieces and each with a steel block weighing 30 tonnes.

They will be tough enough to carry up to 2,500 passengers an hour in each direction between Royal Victoria DLR and North Greenwich tube stations.

Emirates Airline which is sponsoring the £36million service for 10 years has now got its logo on the London Underground map showing the new east London river crossing as a ‘step free’ interchange between the DLR and Jubilee line.