Jump to content

Talk:Bridge of Sighs, Cambridge

Page contents not supported in other languages.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mini dangling

[edit]

The story of the Austin Mini cannot be correct.

The Mini did not start manufacture until 1959 - and it's unlikely that anyone would do that to a brand new car - so if the story *IS* true - then it's either not a Mini or it was a long time after 1957.

I have to say, noting what's been said on the Talk:Punting page, that this story sounds suppicously simillar to the (true) story about the Austin on Senate House Roof... just a thought... MikeMorley 17:30, 9 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've scoured the web looking for more information about this - and find that almost every reference is an identical copy of the same report. One guy who visited Cambridge on holiday wrote a blog entry describing a tour he'd been given in which BOTH the story of the Mini on the Senate house roof *AND* the Mini slung under the bridge were reported as true.

Certainly there are MANY pranks involving the poor, long suffering Mini - the students at Loughborough hauled a Mini up the side of a 10 storey residential block and left it on the roof. I myself (with a crowd of drunken friends) carried a Mini through the corridors of the Elliot college at the University of Kent at Canturbury into our main dining hall - which requiring the car to be turned on it's side to get it through some of the narrower doorways.

The gripping conclusion of the dangling car story

[edit]

Well, for those who care for the truth: I got a very definitive answer from Johnathan Harrison (who I surmise is a Librarian at St.Johns). He included no less than four newspaper clippings from the day each incident happened all of which had photographs. Firstly, it happened not once - but twice. Once in 1963 and again in 1968. In the first incident a 1928 Austin Seven (not a Mini) - one photo shows the car dangling under the bridge - the other shows workmen standing on what looks (to the uninitiated) like a large punt with an Austin Seven sitting right there in the boat. The second clipping says that it is believed that student brought the car under the bridge on four punts lashed together.

The second incident (1968) was using a car called "The Bond Bug" - a hideous 3-wheeled contraption. This time the newspapers had evidently interviewed the students. The car had once again been punted under the bridge using an unspecified number of punts lashed together and with 13 foot planks laid across them to support the car. There is a photo in one of the clippings showing the fire brigade removing the car and a picture of the car supported very precariously on two standard-sized punts - both of which appear to be on the verge of sinking under the weight!

I'm going to try to find someplace to post the four press clippings - but the copyright issues may be a problem.

I'm changing that section of the article now.

SteveBaker 15:09, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

[edit]

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Bridge of Sighs (Cambridge). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

  • If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
  • If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 09:21, 30 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Mention of Venice Bridge

[edit]

"The Bridge of Sighs in Venice linked the criminal courts and the prison, so has a more obvious reason for the name." This statement has no business in the article IMO. It has nothing to do with the Cambridge bridge, first of all, and second doesn't even cite any sources or give any reason for placement in this article. Thus, I am removing it. SentientParadox (talk) 02:54, 5 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]