I captured my best photo of The City flying over London today! 📷
The Thames River from seat 2F on Flight BA 1387, Manchester to London Heathrow.
Let me describe the notable locations I captured in the photo above, working our way up from the bottom.
• Tower Bridge (bottom center) is one of London's most iconic landmarks, and one of the most famous bascule and suspension bridges in the world.
• Tower of London (right of bridge) is both a historic castle and former royal residence, now a UNESCO heritage site.
• City Hall (left side, near river) is the round bulbous-shaped building. Formerly, is was the HQ of the Greater London Authority.
• HMS Belfast (left side, moored on the river) is a preserved Royal Navy warship, now a museum. A must see, especially paired with a visit to the Imperial War Museum.
• Walkie-Talkie Building (top right) is the distinctive skyscraper with the curved street that looks like a...well, you decide.😉
• London Bridge (upriver, somewhat cloud-covered) there's a helluva story about that bridge that sounds more like fishin' tale than the truth. Read to the end of the post and I'll deliver...
What's up with the CWH crew today?
Today is one of those super busy days for the creatives. We're in more than one place at a time it appears, doing the creative work both in the live session and on the road, in the air, or in an online world-building expo!
I'm in transit to Amsterdam for the to represent Hive for the Web3 Con, my first flight of the day was from Manchester to London Heathrow. @rochellegracilla is on a road trip to go meet a shipment of Bass Clarinets that miraculously made it to every musician's fave store, Sweetwater. @shadowspub and @artemisnorth are in a two-day exhibition of their world building spaces on GoBrunch.
These are today's busy bees
@andysporring
@bitterirony Today's gracious CWH host
@bobbie0122
@bobbyb58
@creativegray
@expansivelove
@gregscloud
@gretchenshepherd
@hillaycad.witch
@n4trix
@rochellegracilla
@shadowspub
As promised here is the tall tale of the London Bridge (above, top bridge, just visible from under the cloud cover).
After university, @bitterirony & I from Texas moved to Arizona, that singular continental US state that does not observe Dayight Savings Time, and we learned that there is something very English in the Grand Canyon state.
The old London Bridge, that once spanned the River Thames, was dismantled in 1968 and purchased by Robert P McCullock who had it shipped to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where it was reassembled stone by stone. To much celebration the bridge began its expat life, opening to the public in 1971.
Mind you, this was not the John Rennie bridge built in 1831, but it was falling down, that is, it was sinking due to the increasing traffic load. So, the City of London put it up for sale. McCulloch was not only an American with stacks of cash, but he was also the founder of Lake Havasu City.
A successful businessman and some would say a bit of a gambler, McCulloch's $2.46M initial investment in the bridge required an additional $7M for shipping, engineering and reassembly. Know to be a bold risk taker, he went all in on an audacious creative idea to bring tourists to the city he founded. Now that's the spirit of Creative Work Hour!
See for yourself on this video celebrating Lake Havasu City's London Bridge Golden Anniversary.
More from Amsterday and from the CWH Crew tomorrow!
Much love! 🥰
Alessandra