Richard Brown said:
I just checked on Google Maps for the likely span of the Greenwich overhead camera cables.
It's approx 1290m. I said before, how do they install the cables? At Greenwich the cables cross the Thames, busy roads, over the Queen's House and over the lawns between the Old Naval College and the Maritime Museum buildings. I'm guessing a helicopter must have been used to draw the cables to the permanent pylons. Then temporary pylons may have been used to hold the cables up as they were tensioned.
A cable car or ski lift specialist must have been involved.
Sent from my iPad 1 using iPF - Greetings
Crickey, the thought of all those health & safety Jobsworths whose rules would have had to be circumnavigated!
Hubbie (who says he knows a thing or two about this stuff) suggests for next time, doing the over-the-river bit like a traditional ship-to-shore connection.
First get one of those discus throwers from the arena to hurl a weighted monkey's fist over the Thames, trailing a fine but VERY strong rope. Experiments have shown that to be stronger than steel, the rope must be made of pure silk. You can't just go & cut a length of that in B&Q nowadays so it would have to be custom-made by someone...and would be very expensive, but well worth the dosh, I reckon
.
But the hammer thrower could be persuaded to do it free, I'm sure--Seb Coe seems to have a way of twisting even big heavy arms.
Or (H's other suggestion):
Get hold of a little rocket (NASA would be pleased to help, for a plug) and a rocketeer from Woolwich Arsenal who could fire that same rope over. With care not to hit the 'ouses in between
. Again, a willing volunteer would counter the dire cost of the rope.
If you do all this at night, the JobW's will never know, unless it hits a bobby on his nightly beat. So do it very quietly & carefully...
Bob's yer uncle!
PS: By strange coincidence, I happen to have a length of the very rope needed here...& could post a photo to show Seb if he wanted to check this method out. Just let me know
PPS: The bit about the silk rope experiments is true; the testing was done on the TV in an Adam Hart-Davies series.
