Imagine the view....

By btc

I've started, so I'll finish....

...back in the bosom of her majesty, I have toured the bridges of London (as well as the Tyne, Forth, Severn and Clifton) over the last month and hopefully managed to entertain you both visually, with interesting fact and hopefully a touch of humour on the side, certainly the feedback has been great (apart for from Blip central, who despite 3 messages have not had the decency to even reply about the creation of a bridge group).

So, did you know....

The Towers are joined by 2 walkways at the top you can visit, the current colour scheme of red, white and blue was only in place form 1977 for the silver Jubilee, it was a sort of aqua colour before and the bascules are raised about 1,000 times a year and is free for vessels.

In 1952 the bridge opened as a No78 bus was crossing from the South bank, the driver made a decision to accelerate clearing a 3 ft gap and falling 6ft onto with north Bascule that had luckily not started to rise.

In 1968 a RAF pilot un impressed by the lack of celebration of the RAFs 50th birthday, decided to fly his fighter plain between the walk way and bascules, unsurprisingly he was court marshalled.

In 1973 a stockbroker on bail for market fraud did the same stunt and died 2 hrs later after crashing in the Lake District. (for non-Brits, that's about 250 miles north west of London).

In 1997 there was a bit of a panic with security forces when Bill Clinton's motorcade while crossing the bridge during a bridge raising got split in two on either side of the bridge. A spokesman for Tower Bridge is quoted as saying, "We tried to contact the American Embassy, but they wouldn't answer the phone."

And finally..

In October 2003, David Crick, a Fathers 4 Justice campaigner, climbed a tower crane near Tower Bridge to protest dressed as Spider-Man. Fearing for his safety, and that of motorists should he fall, police cordoned off the area, closing the bridge for 6 days.

So I hereby bring down the curtain on my bridge series (through the constant drizzle which was a pain), its been a fun challenge to my blip life spiced up, so onto my next series seeing as I enjoyed this one so much, I had to sit and think 'what could I do that would be London, scenic, and full of factual titbits?'...........of course................................

Comments
Sign in or get an account to comment.