When he talks about the Pool of London being the world's busiest port - it was absolutely inconceivable at the time that the growth of huge container ships would lead to London being unusable (the Thames is too narrow) and trade moving down river. I found one of those grand ambitious megaproject proposals from the 1930s which proposed building a giant dam from Scotland to Norway and draining the North Sea for farmland - but it still had a groove cut through the English Channel so ships could reach London. It genuinely seemed more plausible that we could drain the ocean than we would stop using London as a port!

Thanks for pointing out the 'hidden' jokes. Loved the mobile phone theft.

A couple of other facts. The London Marathon passes over the bridge and, after a circuit of the East End, passes underneath it on the north bank. The south opening span(bascule) weighs 20 tons more than the north side. This is because it has 4x 5ton hydraulic 'bolts' to hold the two halves together for road use. On 30th December 1952, a double decker bus was crossing the bridge when it started opening. The diver put his foot down and 'jumped the gap'. The only injury was to the driver who suffered a broken leg. Isambard Kingdom Brunel's son, Henry, worked on Tower Bridge. IKB nearly drowned during construction of the Thames tunnel and whilst recuperating in Bristol he designed the Clifton suspension bridge.

Wolf is from the 90's show Gladiators which you had a US version of, and Barry is Barry Chuckle from the kids TV show chuckle brothers.

@waynepunkdude

5 ай бұрын

American gladiators was first

4:50 I'm lucky enough to drive those trains on the East London Line. I'm always in awe as I drive through the Thames Tunnel, thankfully the pumps are doing their job otherwise the leaking water would make it difficult pretty quickly ;)

When you've a chance, how about listening to Spike Milligan's 'Tower Bridge'? "Oh, Tower Bridge! What did you do? You opened up, And let my baby fall through! She was standing there In her brand new mink. Yet you opened up And let her fall in the drink!"

@araptorofnote5938

5 ай бұрын

Spike also wrote my favourite limerick: There was a young man called Wyatt Who's voice was exceedingly quiet Then one day it faded away.

@josefschiltz2192

5 ай бұрын

@@araptorofnote5938 I loved it when he read his own work in his own individual way.

@missharry5727

5 ай бұрын

That's obviously a parody of Winchester Cathedral by The New Vaudeville Band.

@josefschiltz2192

5 ай бұрын

@@missharry5727 Wouldn't put it past Spike. Sounds just like him! 😄!

@GnrMilligan

5 ай бұрын

You may have guessed from my Avatar I'm a Spike fan..lol

A barry chuckle. Chuckle brother reation video would be hilarious. Even us Brits don't really understand that phenomenon 😂

I enjoy the way you learn .... It's so refreshing watching someone research the little titbits that would just go over the heads of a less discerning yank ❤

I've seen Tower Bridge raised twice. The first time I was standing on the left, on one stone turrets, on the southern part of the bridge. You aren't allowed to do that now. So the next time I was again watching from the south, standing on the pavement. It's an amazing site. The main foot entrance to Brunel's foot and road tunnel, was a long staircase down to the tunnel. The road traffic had a two arch entrance. The entrance with staircase was blocked off and is now a room, with an inspection hatch to the railway below. The two entrances are immortalised in prints. The London Bridge in Arizona is the early nineteenth century one, which is the one before the current one, which is Victorian. London Bridge is the most replaced bridge on the Thames, so much so that a stone entrance to the medieval bridge, can still be found and the archeological remains of the posts of the Roman bridge are still visible, at low tide. The newest bridge on the Thames is The Millennium Bridge. My favourite bridge is Hungerford Bridge, the rail bridge of Charing Cross Station, with its scary walk way, next to the rail lines. Check out the 1950s bus incident on Tower Bridge, its almost unreal, but really happened.

7:19 I like how J Foreman got Captain Disillusion's assistant Alan to provide the voice for Frederic Barnett. 8:59: It's Olvivia Newton John, "Wolf" one of the Gladiators from the 1990s TV series and Barry from the Chuckle Brothers.

@140cabins

5 ай бұрын

If you don't recognise Wolf and Barry Chuckle, you fail the British Citizenship Exam.

Having been lucky enough to have had quite a few private tours of Tower Bridge including lower level access, it's always good to remember that up until the 1960's the had been a crime rate treble the amount on the river Thames than the was in the city itself dating back to the 18th century. We have no modern comprehension of how busy the Thames once was and the amount of people who owed their living to it. The " Waterman & Lighterman " who were the heart and soul of the Thames are long gone now, but they still retain a beautiful historic untouched building & function rooms that any visitor to London who is looking for some real British history away from the tourists traps should try and visit.

Yes, Wings - IMO, one of their best albums. "The underground section of the overground". Thanks. Now I have the theme to "The Wombles" as an earworm.

Back in the early 1930’s my dad used to run though Brunel’s tunnel with my grandads lunch. So home from school collect the food run through the tunnel the run back to school

Went there on a school trip, and went through the walkways. Was the early 80s. So it hadn't been re opened that long. It didn't have the glass floor then. Which I'm thankful for, as I'm not great with heights at best of times 😬

I'm surprised the QEII Bridge at Dartford isn't mentioned although it's slightly outside London.

0:22 egham! my uni is there! real nice place, i love it. small world huh? or at least small country.

More KZreadr cameos in this one. The guy playing Frederic Barnett (the bridge engineer with the tophat) on the Zoom call, is Captain Disillusion.

8:53 Barry Chuckle, of the Chuckle Brothers.

@brigidsingleton1596

5 ай бұрын

To me...!!

@barneylaurance1865

5 ай бұрын

@@brigidsingleton1596 To You...!!

John Wolf Barry... An episode for each methinks...

Interesting Fact for you: My Uncle was a Lecturer at University of London (Royal Holloway) in Electronic Engineering pertaining to Radio and Radar. Think he would have been retired before you spent time there but he did do the odd stand in up to 1988.

Wolf was one of the Gladiators (remember them) in the British version. GLADIATORS READY! And Barry was one of the 'Chuckle Brothers', Barry and Paul, who had 1970's bland kid's show humour.

07:23 *Captain Disillusion!!!*

Great video thanks for sharing. I've raced across London late at night too. But I went from Earls Court to Victoria bus station. If we missed our bus we would have had to spend the night in Paddington station, but this was back in 2006 after a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert.

Strange but true , there is no charge when they raise the bridge for a ship it's free !

Totally forgot Adam Blampied was in this video 😂

Those 14 Bridges mentioned were only up to a certain part of The River Thames. Altogether with all the West London Bridges, there are 35 Bridges crossing Old Father Thames:)

Olivia Newton John, Wolf from the UK gladiators and Barry from the chuckle brothers(UK kids comedy show)

Definitely watch the one on how finding your Longitude was solved with a watch!

My great grandfather was one of the many that built Tower Bridge

Olivia Newton-JOHN, WOLF from the 90's show 'Gladiators', and BARRY Chuckle from kid's entertainers 'The Chuckle Brothers'.

We should build the art deco version on London Bridge!

"Tower Bridge" not "The Tower Bridge". (Similarly "London Bridge".)

8:21 Haha. Echoes of the Village Council "You have no authority" fiasco. You need to watch that.

I went to School in Egham.

What a small world, i grew up in egham and actually worked at the university.

You missed the "in a nutshell" joke. 😂

10:28 Bless you

You should look at thr Battle of Bamber bridge. illuminating,

6:02 last time I saw him on anything I think he was playing a company big-wig, being threatened to go over a flight of stairs by Peter Kay, playing Danny Bakers dad in Cradle to Grave. It's a shame they never finished that show.

@Isleofskye

5 ай бұрын

Great Show for me ,especially,as Danny was born and lives 5 miles from me still though we both moved out a little.

So the Brunel Thames Tunnel will now be part of the Windrush Line??

Um - what about the Dartford crossing. That's east of Tower bridge

The university in Egham is called Royal Holloway University of London and is one of the best looking buildings in the area of my hometown, I wonder if you went to the JFK memorial while you were in Egham and fun fact the acre of land surrounding it was gifted to the US by Queen Elizabeth II.

I have a history with the Tyne bridge as I'm a Geordie

'Bazalgette'* (and he* designed and built the sewer system under London, after "The Big Stink" - which I believe Jay Foreman may have also covered in another video?) ...Anyhoo... Bazelgette* is pronounced correctly with a _soft_ 'g' * - like 'giraffe' _NOT_ a _hard_ 'G' as in 'Golf'!! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿♥️🖖

I assume you were attending Royal Holloway College. My daughter studied there> a wonderful place.

Tower bridge is the most easterly bridge, not London bridge.

Oliver Newton John Wolf from the Gladiators Barry Chuckle (to me, to you) The city where I was born has roman origins. The Romans built a road (in an almost straight line) for 54 miles from this city to London where it ended at London Bridge. Much of this road is still in use today, it is called Stane Streeet (Stane being an old spelling of stone - so Stone Street)

brilliant genius? Hmmm. A tautological expression, I would venture...

@Isleofskye

5 ай бұрын

I taut dat as well,Sir...

What's that terrible murican accent he puts on from 13:13 onwards?