Have you ever wondered how a bridge could become a celebrity? Well, here we are, in front of the Millennium Bridge, the wobbly bridge, the bridge that became famous for a very particular reason. This bridge was designed to make London a little bit more modern. The designers wanted to create something slim and futuristic, a bridge that would help people get from one side of the Thames to the other without obscuring the view of St Paul’s Cathedral. The bridge is quite a sight, isn’t it? It looks like a thin, elegant ribbon, stretching across the river. It opened in 2000, on the 10th of June. Only a month late, with a cost of £18.2 million – £2.2 million over budget. Imagine, a million pounds over budget for a bridge. That is a lot of money, and yet the bridge almost immediately became a symbol of Britain’s inability to do big things. Because on its opening day, there was a problem. The bridge started to move. It wobbled, it swayed, it became unstable. The reason? The designers didn’t consider the human factor. People, when they walk on a slightly wobbly bridge, subconsciously start to move in step with the wobble, making it worse. The bridge became so unstable that it had to be closed in order to fix it. Engineers worked hard to find a solution and in 2002, after two years of construction, the bridge reopened, and has been stable ever since. It’s still known as the wobbly bridge, a reminder of the day when everyone was a little bit wrong.
Центральный дом работников искусств
Step through the grand wooden doors of the Central House of the Workers of Art, and you’ll be transported to