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During the early days of the Colosseum, ancient writers recorded that the building was used for naumachiae (more properly known as navalia proelia) or simulated sea battles. Accounts of the inaugural games held by Titus in AD 80 describe it being filled with water for a display of specially trained swimming horses and bulls. There is also an account of a re-enactment of a famous sea battle between the Corcyrean (Corfiot) Greeks and the Corinthians. This has been the subject of some debate among historians; although providing the water would not have been a problem, it is unclear how the arena could have been waterproofed, nor would there have been enough space in the arena for the warships to move around. It has been suggested that the reports either have the location wrong, or that the Colosseum originally featured a wide floodable channel down its central axis (which would later have been replaced by the hypogeum)
Inside the engine room
From the Behind-the-Scenes Tour around Tower Bridge: Towers, high-level Walkways and Victorian Engine Rooms down to its hidden depths, normally out of bounds to the public...views from the Glass Floor and high-level Walkway, then the original steam engines, accumulators and boilers in the Victorian Engine Rooms...the Bridge’s operational areas including the Control Cabin, Machinery Room and the immense Bascule Chambers, which house the 422-ton counterweights.
Built between 1886 and 1894, the Bridge has spent more than a century as London's defining landmark, an icon of London and the United Kingdom.
A huge challenge faced the City of London Corporation - how to build a bridge downstream from London Bridge without disrupting river traffic activities. To generate ideas, the Special Bridge or Subway Committee was formed in 1876, and a public competition was launched to find a design for the new crossing.
Over 50 designs were submitted to the Committee for consideration, some of which are on display at Tower Bridge. It wasn't until October 1884 however, that Sir Horace Jones, the City Architect, in collaboration with John Wolfe Barry, offered the chosen design for Tower Bridge as a solution.
It took eight years, five major contractors and the relentless labour of 432 construction workers each day to build Tower Bridge under the watchful eye of Sir John Wolfe Barry.
Two massive piers were built on foundations sunk into the riverbed to support the construction, and over 11,000 tons of steel provided the framework for the Towers and Walkways. This framework was clad in Cornish Granite and Portland Stone to protect the underlying steelwork and to give the Bridge a more pleasing appearance.
When it was built, Tower Bridge was the largest and most sophisticated bascule bridge ever completed ('bascule' comes from the French word for 'seesaw'). These bascules were operated by hydraulics, using steam to power the enormous pumping engines. The energy created was stored in six massive accumulators, meaning that as soon as power was required to lift the Bridge, it was always readily available. The accumulators fed the driving engines, which drove the bascules up and down. Despite the complexity of the system, the bascules only took about a minute to raise to their maximum angle of 86 degrees. Find out more about this process.
Today, the bascules are still operated by hydraulic power, but since 1976 they have been driven by oil and electricity rather than steam. The original pumping engines, accumulators and boilers are now on display within Tower Bridge’s Engine Rooms.
[TowerBridge.org.uk]
My favourite Christmas image. I took this a few years ago on a very foggy morning. It was something of a Sherlock Holmes tale where the fog was so thick that you could only see 50 feet (yes thats imperial) in front of you. It was probably my best every morning of bird watching as I saw everything from Robins, Stonechats, Mute Swans and even Snipe on the Levels - they were all too afraid to fly too far as they couldn't see and kept flying around in circles. This little chap settled on a teasel and was polite enough to stay still for a while - perhaps he didn't see me as I was dressed in camo gear - or perhaps he was watching me... perhaps he was Santa's little messenger.
MLA 81 70 5932 230-2
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IEA 31 70 5892 005-7
JNA NLU 29123
JNA NLU 29023
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MLA 81 70 5932 307-8
IEA 31 70 5892 016-4
MLA 81 70 5932 272-4
MLA 81 70 5932 337-5
MLA 81 70 5932 338-3
MLA 81 70 5932 340-9
MLA 503505
MLA 81 70 5932 275-7
MLA 503062
JNA NLU 29170
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The giraffe rescue center has built a pavilion up at eye-level so you can feed the giraffes giraffe chow and let gravity take its course. They also have a lodge where you can stay the night. The lodge has tall windows they open so the giraffes can stick their necks into the sitting room and visit with the guests.
The Central–Mid-Levels escalator and walkway system in Hong Kong is the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world. Opened in 1993, the entire system covers over 800 metres (2,600 ft) in distance and elevates over 135 metres (443 ft) from bottom to top.
A Stanley Level & Rule combination plane no 45. This plane is well kept with most of the nickel plating still intact. The plane seems to be almost complete with the only visible missing part being the long depth stop. Two of the cutters also look like later replacements, identical in size to the originals but with differing depth adjusting slots.