The Wobbly Bridge
Millennium Bridge
Though it originally opened in 2000, the London Millennium Footbridge (as it’s officially known) had to close for two years after Londoners nicknamed it “Wobbly Bridge” due to its swaying motion. I am not in the bridge-making business and know absolutely nothing about architecture or engineering, but this nickname seems offensive.
It seems the vibrations were caused by something called synchronous lateral excitation. While its vertical counterpart is well-known (the nearby Albert Bridge has a sign from 1873 asking marching ranks of soldiers to break step while crossing it precisely to avoid this), the lateral version of the phenomenon was under-researched at the time.
It works thus: as people walk, they create a natural sway motion that causes the bridge to oscillate — this in turn causes people to react to it, swaying in step, thus exacerbating the problem. Modifications and repairs were done to the structure to stabilize it, and it opened again in 2002.
St Paul’s Cathedral
As with Westminster Abbey, I also did not go into St Paul’s Cathedral (tickets were £25, y’all), but its dome towers over its surrounding buildings, so that it’s difficult to never lay eyes on the structure even when just walking around London. The church sits on the highest point in the City of London, on Ludgate Hill.
Several churches stood on this site throughout history, and the fourth St Paul’s, referred to oftentimes as Old St Paul’s, was built in the 11th century. Due to a fire in 1135, the church was not completed and consecrated until 1240.
The Great Fire of London of 1666 unfortunately decimated Old St Paul’s, and so Christopher Wren was appointed to build a new cathedral on the site. It was officially declared done on Christmas Day of 1711, though construction continued for many years after that, with the statues on the roof added in the 1720s.
The church has been the site of various events, including funeral services for a myriad of personages such as Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher, the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, and the thanksgiving services for the Silver, Golden, Diamond, and Platinum Jubilees for Queen Elizabeth II.
Gold Colored Fox 