Bridge Incidents:

When the bridge re-opened a a national newspaper photographed a woman in a bikini holding two plates of jelly on it to see if the wobble had really been fixed.

Whilst the repair work was being done a bale of hay was hung from the bridge in order to warn passing boats of the construction work going on

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From Cross River Traffic: Those lucky enough to have been crossing the bridge on 21 September 2004 at 5PM would have been treated to a Native American in full head-dress blessing the waters from on the bridge. Then again if any waters were in need of ritual blessing by a lunatic in feathers then the Thames would certainly qualify.

Millennium Bridge Photos copyright Chris Cooke

Millennium Bridge

London is peculiar. The city waits 100 years for a new bridge, then three appear almost at once. This one is the most (in) famous. It opened to huge excitement and large crowds only promptly to close because it was too popular. Organisers had estimated fewer than 10,000 people would cross it on the first day in June 2000, but ended up with more 100,000. This volume of people tramping across it on the opening weekend set up a rhythm that caused the bridge to move on its support and, but for this huge human wave, the wobbling bridge might never have swayed its 70mm. Although the nausea-inducing 'ride' as some described it (in fact it was light, a mild intoxication with your feet going slightly awry, and not unpleasant at all) never threatened to undermine its structural integrity, the bridge's excessive movement forced designers back to their drawing boards. Someone even came up with a mathematical formula to explain it, F=KxV. F is sideways force, V is the sideways force of bridge on pedestrians. K is the mathematical constant.