Paddling towards Waterside viaduct
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Description
"During a descent of the River Lune from Beckfoot to Killington bridge (http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1697710). More than two decades ago, as a caver, we used to know this simply as "the jumping bridge". A wooden walkway on the SE side (seen in http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/607739) gave access to the central span, with a little branch walkway across to the NW side, from where ropes could be lowered, and then pulled up to the side with the main walkway. Tie in to your harness, adjust slack to suit your degree of courage, then jump off (one rope gave you the distance to fall, the others had more slack, so they were only loaded if the first rope failed). The screams echoed impressively. Good training for climbers who wanted to experience a big leader fall without much risk of hitting something on the way down. Your photographer never did have the nerve to jump, and was probably braver back then ! I know canoeists have been surprised by jumpers more recently, but apparently some work started on the bridge in spring 2008, and looking from below, there did not seem to be a walkway any more, so perhaps this activity is now frowned upon. The bridge used to carry the Midland railway from Clapham (where it passed directly in front of our cavers' cottage http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1198603) to meet up with the west coast mainline (then the LNWR). This link was somewhat superseded by the Settle-Carlisle, and the line was closed by Beeching in 1966." Photo by Andy Waddington, 2010. -
Owner
Andy Waddington -
Source
Geograph (Geograph) -
License
What does this mean? Creative Commons License
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Further information
Link: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1698498
Resource type: Image
Added by: Pat Thomson
Last modified: 1 week ago
Viewed: 22 times
Picture Taken: 2010-02-07 -
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