With a note of surprise and relief, a journalist wrote to the Illustrated London News in July 1859: "On Monday evening, the 11th of July, the Great Bell of St. Stephens for the first time broke silence. The sound emitted is powerful, but its tone is highly melodious".
Tonight, a hundred years later to the hour, Big Ben can be seen and heard still powerfully and melodiously sounding his own hundredth birthday chimes.