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Inaugurated in its unfinished state by HM the Queen but
technically “dedicated” by Mayor Ken Livingstone
The Millennium Foot Bridge opened in June 2000, two
months late and two million pounds over budget.
Two days later it closed for two years after walkers on
the bridge experienced an unpleasant swaying that made
some of them seasick. The resonance set up by random
footfalls was causing what is technically called hazardous
deck motions, so seasick is spot on!
The bridge needed adjustments, including the retrofitting
of viscous dampers, which is fun to say out loud.
Viscous dampers. It reminds me of Sir Bernard Miles’s
“Me and old Charlie” monologues recorded by the BBC
a stone’s throw from the bridge at The Mermaid Theatre.
Fixing the bridge cost £9 million, half again the original
budget! Oops. Usually a new bridge across the River
Thames requires an Act of Parliament, perhaps the
Wibbly Wobbly Bridge
jinxed itself by becoming the
first bridge to circumvent this traditional requirement.
At 9.00am sharp on reopening day 22 February 2002,
a “herd of big-wigs including Lord Foster of Thamesside,
Sir Anthony Caro and the engineers from Arup who
designed the bridge, together with at least one bishop,
a town crier and the media, stepped foot on the bridge.”
Safety in numbers second time round and all was well.
The bridge didn’t throw a wobbly although The Sun had
sent a bikini clad page three girl with a plate of jelly.
What must visitors make of us?
Train Troubles
Just before the Queen opened the Docklands Light Railway
in 1987 a test train overshot the end of the track. Fortunately
all went well for the DLR on the big day. I was there on the
day the DLR opened, having qualified as a Greenwich Guide
the autumn before. It pips my previous opening ceremony
which was the world’s first McDonald’s in Woolwich in
1974! My mum asked for a plate and a knife and fork!
On 15 September 1830 huge crowds watched the Duke of
Wellington board one of eight trains in Liverpool to begin
the journey to Manchester on the world’s first railway. The
locomotives stopped to take on water and William Huskisson
MP, stepped down from the train and approached the Prime
Minster’s carriage. Unfortunately he fell in front of George
Stephenson’s Rocket no less thus becoming the first person
in the world to die in a railway accident
.
It is perhaps surprising that Huskisson had been there at all as
he had been quite a vocal opponent of the new railway,
caught up in the widespread fears that this new invention
spelled danger. People thought that to travel at the speeds
possible on the new trains the very air would be sucked from
their lungs. But he was there on the day. In 1883 the Sioux
chief Sitting Bull was a guest of honour at the opening of the
Northern Pacific Railroad. Invited to speak, he said in his
native Lakota language, “I hate all white people. You are
thieves and liars. You have taken away our land and made us
outcasts”. The quick thinking interpreter translated this as
“The Chief is very happy to be here and looks forward to
peace and prosperity with the white people”. The bemused
Sioux received a standing ovation.
Inset: McDonald’s, Woolwich 1974
Main Picture: Northern Pacific Railway 1883