The bus that jumped the bridge

I know this sounds made up, but it's a properly documented, contemporaneously reported fact. On the 30th of December 1952, a number 78 bus was halfway across Tower Bridge when the driver, Albert Gunter, realised the bridge was rising underneath him. The warning bell that should have stopped him hadn't gone off in time.

He didn't slam the brakes. He put his foot down, and the bus jumped the widening gap, landing safely on the far bascule just before it lifted out of reach. All twenty passengers made it across. Gunter broke his leg in the landing and was later given a reward for his nerve. The bridge still opens for river traffic today, thankfully with a bit more warning than he got.

I painted it in watercolour and ink, those twin Gothic towers over the Thames. There's a poster with a letter home and a postcard if you'd like one.

Shop the poster here: Tower Bridge, London · Travel Poster