Today in 1952, a double decker bus driver in London had to make a split second decision to protect his passengers, and realized the safest option was to gun it and jump a city landmark.
Albert Gunter was behind the wheel of the number 78 bus that day.
That route took the bus over the famous 19th Century bridge next to the Tower of London.
But as the double decker rode across that famous span, something went very wrong.
Tower Bridge was designed to raise up to accommodate ships as they cross the River Thames.
When that happened, bridge HQ was supposed to put up a big red light so road traffic would stay in place during the raising.
But Gunter only saw a green light, so he continued on.
He soon noticed the other half of the bridge wasn’t where it would normally be, which meant his half was on its way up.
And he did some quick thinking: there was no way to go backwards out of the situation, and the bridge wasn’t going to get any lower, so the best way forward was to get across before the other side of the bridge got any further away.
Gunter floored it, and while it wasn’t really enough to get the bus going terribly fast, it was enough to get it across the open stretch and onto the other side of the bridge… which fortunately had not started going up.
Passengers were shaken up but not seriously injured; the only person who’d taken any notable damage was Gunter, who ended up with a broken leg.
He did also receive a number of thank yous for his effort: financial rewards from the bus system and the bridge operators, plus a free vacation for him and his family.
Hopefully they didn’t have to travel over any raising bridges when they went on holiday.
Today in 1999, the passing of Sarah Knauss at age 119.
She had become the longest-lived person in American history, and while a lot of obituaries noted that she’d just missed the year 2000, that might not have been a big deal to her.
The BBC reported that when she was told she’d become the oldest living person, her reply was “so what?”
The day a bus jumped Tower Bridge (TowerBridge.org)
World’s oldest person misses millennium (BBC)
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Photo by Gilfan Afero Photography via Flickr/Creative Commons
