Below and Beyond: Humber Bridge Climb

Saturday, 16 July 2011

Humber Bridge Climb

Humberlievable...

The Humber Bridge, near Kingston upon Hull, is a 2,220 M (7,283 ft) single-span suspension bridge, the fifth-largest of its type in the world.

Although the original plans were drawn up in the 1930's and revised in 1955, it wasn't until 26th July 1972 when work began.

The bridge is a masterpiece of civil engineering and was developed out of a design used initially for the Severn bridge near Bristol.

Spanning the Humber Estuary, the centre span is 1,410 M (4,626 ft), suspended between two vertical concrete columns each with a height of 155.5 M (510 ft) by 44,000 miles worth of cable fixed into 2 huge concrete anchorages.

The bridge opened to traffic on 24th June 1981 and was officially opened by Elizabeth II on 17th July 1981.

An average of 120,000 vehicles per week cross the Humber, it remains the longest bridge in the world that one can cross on foot or by bicycle.

Theres something about bridges, they have a certain appeal to them, this place is no exception, I've wanted to do it for ages!

In all honesty I've only ever climbed the Runcorn bridge which was way back last year with Stepping Lightly, Scott & Yaz (biggup).

Ever since SL has tormented me with this place and I just knew one day I would have to pay it a visit.

After hearing various tales of Police ambush and hefty fines I wasn't that keen to set foot on the thing, but ultimately I caved in.

As I settled down after a long day with a cold beer I thought I was in for a quiet night, that was until my phone lit up.

"High stuff is a bit slow and needs a boot up the arse" :D

LOL, I remember the last time I heard a similar line..

My adrenaline was pumping followed by a nervous fart, a short while later we were on our way.

We kitted up in the darkness and made our way onto the bridge, evading the CCTV and waiting for a break in the traffic.
"Right Ojay", to which we legged it across the anchors and onto the suspension cable, now lit up like an X-mas tree we had to run like fuck until we reached the anti-climb/gaurd door around 65ft up.

Still lit up we had to move real fast here, it wasn't easy, but we hadn't come this far for failure!

Once past we had a further 20ft until we were above the glow of the street lights below and into the safety of the shadows.

It seemed like an age before we reached the summit, the glow of the red light approached us, finally we made it.

A quick look down to check there were no blue lights and it was cameras at the ready...

It's windy as f00k up here as to be expected, so getting pics aint easy, besides the bridge shakes like a shitting dog (It is designed to tolerate constant motion and bends more than 3 M (10 ft) in winds of 80 mph).

We didn't hang around, 15 minutes of creeping around and dodging the surveillance CCTV cameras and we began our descent.

Before we new it we were scrambling around the gaurd door and on the way back to the get-a-way car, the absence of blue lights was a huge relief.

Idiots Climb Bridge