The Emirates Airline cable car took a step closer to completion yesterday as moving cable car gondolas were sighted for the first time.
These pictures were taken today for Greenwich.co.uk by Daren when more test runs were being carried out using one full gondola and two skeleton gondolas.
Here’s a video that was posted to YouTube by user ‘wye001’.
Yes, but imagine if it stuck on a knot, faltered at a bird on the wire, or simply stopped. They do, you know. Up there for hours, incipient panic attacks brimming in a small and hitherto well-mannered pod; the river below, the planes above and a damp copy of The Evening Standard somewhere in the middle-distance. Scenarios build, confidence flounders as I follow its perilous journey in my mind’s eye. A gondola may fall off. Oh, it won’t sink, someone said, don’t be silly, a gondola will float.
And how do we deal with this in our reading of ‘for your own safety’ – don parachute, life jacket?
Even Boris Johnston’s ego will not intercede in gravity. He, commander of all mere mortals survey, is only playing at the gods in Jason and the Argonauts.
Good luck.