The story of the great riparian getaway
Once upon a time, when we were younger and more impressionable, there was a tale told by the elder children of a group of schoolkids who liked to jump off bridges.

They would wake before dawn and cut a secret and silent path to the banks of the Thames, where they would find the nearest bridge and jump off it into the dark and turbulent waters.

Many of these tales I heard myself, although the jumpers themselves were lost in legend. Until now. For you are in the presence of a jumper now. I took it upon myself to leap from a bridge and be forever carved into the headboard of my history in B3ta, another notch of accomplishment added to what is now a long list of achievements and accolades.

Following in the footsteps of our unknown heroes, three brave souls and myself met at 6am on the football fields. Our mission: to jump from a bridge into the Thames. It was a long, cold walk to the site and scarcely a word was spoken. We all were tense, secretly anxious of the dangers but outwardly stoical.

Once we had scaled the bridge we peered out over the railing at the swirling waters, gauging the height by the occasional boat passing underneath. Fifteen minutes later we brought ourselves to draw lots, to see who would climb over the railing first. I lost, and so over I went, feeling oh-so precarious balanced on the 6 inches of concrete 20 m above the water. A car slowed, flashing its lights and honking its horn before driving on. Another of us climbed over the edge.

It must have been almost an hour before we were all on the other side of the railing, stalling and prevaricating and cajoling one another. And then the cops arrived. Lights flashing and sirens wailing, a police car screeched to a halt at the end of the bridge. A lone officer leapt from the car shouting "Police! Stop!"

We all looked at each other, and jumped. All but one of us. And as we surfaced we caught a glimpse of our companion being dragged back over the railing. Moments later the officer was sliding down the steep embankment, as we drifted with the current, and running along the riverbank shouting and pleading with us as we paddled further out into the river. He stopped and we swam around the next bend where there was an easy place to get out.

We had got away, but we knew the game was up - the boy who was too afraid to jump would most likely be the boy to crack under the pressure of police, school and parents and give our names out to mitigate his inevitable punishment. So we walked dejectedly back to the officer, who was still standing on the riverbank.

Needless to say there were many reprimands and much of the force of the law was threatened. However, after dealing out an earful, the officer became more amiable. "So why did you come back?" he asked, and we explained. He laughed, saying, "very clever! But not what I'd have done at your age. You know I used to jump off this very bridge when I was a kid! Now run along and we'll not say any more about it."
(IdlePeAcEsign if trouble were my mistress, i'd send her to them, Thu 5 May 2011, 19:34, 1 reply)

Bridge jumping
I've always thought if kids (or adults) want to piss about jumping off bridges and the like then why stop them? They've judged it to be safe, why should someone else get to stop them because they don't have the same attitude?

The first time I jumped off a bridge (not that I've done it much) I was standing on the outside of the railing as a police car drove up. I was expecting one of them to stop us, but they just glanced at us, nodded slightly to say hello and drove on. That's the proper attitude!

Apparently it's very common to jump off that bridge, as you can see in this video www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNO1wssmcPk (same bridge, just 18 years after).
( SteamedCleaner, Thu 5 May 2011, 20:09, closed)