This is London's Cable Car, the £60 million boondoggle
that the Mayor of London insisted was a vital part of the city's transport infrastructure.
And here's the thing. That is a really tall cable car, 90 metres.
If you want a cable car with a view over the city,
you don't need it to be that high.
Why is it so tall? Well, the answer to that is down the river,
at the QE2 Bridge, at the Dartford Crossing, which for many years has been the height limit
for vessels, cruise ships, warships coming into the city.
Now, when this cable car was built, one of the requirements was that those ships could not be impeded.
They must still be able to come into London.
But here's something you might not know.
This height, this expensive height here, is a compromise. Every metre you ratchet up the height,
you also ratchet up the cost, but it has to be high enough to let those vessels pass underneath.
And the thing you might not know is that, well, the way they bodged it
is that if a tall ship needs to come underneath at low tide,
they will remove all the gondolas
and make sure there's no passengers on board. Put everything safely away.
So that the wire, unladen, raises up enough to let boats pass.
It is a bodge job at best.
but then that pretty much sums up the Mayor of London.
And that is something you might not know.
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