American Reacts to East London Bridges (Why There Are None) 

You are so quick to pick up on tiny references in these videos- even when you have no idea what they reference! "Local bridge, for local people" is a misquote from the Comedy series "League of Gentlemen" which features (amongst many weird and wonderful characters) a brother and sister who run a small shop on isolated moorland, which they are at pains to tell everyone is a "Local shop for Local people" These characters have distinctive pig-like noses, which is what you spotted. The quote has passed into British cultural life- you often here references to something being a 'Local X for local people' It's a well known planning phenomenum that if you build more roads (or tunnels, in this case) then it encourages more car journeys, and after a few years (months even) the roads are as crowded as they were before the 'improvements'.

He was referencing a tv program the league of gentleman you wont like it, its for local people.

"People could just walk across the river" fun fact, people now and then did used to be able to cross the river. Occasionally in very harsh winters, the Thames would freeze over, and when this occurred, they held frost fairs on the river. Not only did people walk across it, but you'd have circus tents, food stalls, ice skating; normal standard fairground stuff, on a frozen river. These occurred not every year of course, but between 625 to 1814, so only for about 1200 years

15:30 He's talking about "induced demand" which is a very well known and understood phenomenon in urban planning, and has seen practical proof all over the world, especially in the USA. The more roads you build, the more people will drive untill they're all congested again. Adding lanes and widening roads and highways only encourages more people to drive, quickly completely saturating the road or highway again in a matter of years or even months. This phenomenon is especially pronounced with cars, because they're inherently inefficient when it comes to space usage, especially when there's barely 1-2 people per car on average in those 2 ton steel boxes. And this isn't even taking into account all the space that needs to be allocated for parking these metal boxes both in the public space and at home. Induced demand also works for cycling, walking and public transit. The more pleasant and safe infrastructure you build for these modes, the more it attracts users. But the difference is that cycling, walking and public transit are far more space efficient and can carry far more people while using FAR less space. Just one example: a metro/underground line with a frequency of 5 minutes can transport over 30 000 people per hour easily. And that's on two rial tracks, one in each direction, only as wide as a two lane street. For a road or highway to transport 30 000 people per hour, you'd need a 8-10 lane highway over 20m wide, and even then it'd probably not reach those numbers. For example the Brooklyn bridge in new York carries slightly less than 5000 vehicles per hour, about 120 000 per day. And that's with 5 lanes solely dedicated to motor traffic. A few years back one lane of 6 was converted to a cycle lane and that one lane carried at the start about 1200 cyclists per day, but is now quickly approaching 5000 per day or 200 per hour. And it's nowhere even near capacity. And that's with the space of just one 2.5m car lane. There are bike paths just as wide/narrow in the Netherlands that carry over 20 000 - 30 000 commuter cyclists per day! The modern subway crossings in new York through tunnels and over other bridges can easily carry 30 000 people per hour, on only 2 tracks, one in each direction. So you see, induced demand very much is a well understood and well proven thing that really exists. The massive 8-10 lane highway systems in cities all over the cities of the USA that are still congested are proof enough of this. Every single highway in which billions were invested to add "just one more lane" was congested again almost immediately after the "upgrade". Private cars are just so incredibly space inefficient, they'll never work in dense urban areas without either massive continuous congestion, or without a ton of alternative modes of convenient and safe alternative modes of transport like cycling, walking, and public transit. The problem is that many cities in N-america simply do not have any alternatives to the car and simply do not even offer the alternative to safely and conveniently walk or cycle somewhere. I advise you react to the "not just bikes channel". He explains all this in a funny, clear, and concise way from the perspective of someone who has lived all over the world in all kinds of cities, but now lives in the Netherlands. And he explains a lot of these urban planning principles we've known about for over half a century now, but were ignored completely in N-America up until the last 10 years.

Keep going on the Jay Foreman reactions.

In most towns and cities, the prevailing wind is from the west. So all the well-off people tended to settle in the western part to escape the smell and smoke. The richest areas would usually be in the west, and the industrial areas would usually be in the east.

The Silvertown Tunnel is no longer "proposed", it's being built, right now.

His description of canary wharf is 😂

Millennium Bridge: if I remember rightly, once a few 00 people were walking across it, the weight caused it to jiggle/sway a tiny tiny little bit.... but the subconscious minds/bodies of all the people crossing end up walking in tune with the sway... which very quickly compounds the issue!

Mentioned was the Tower bridge construction. Tower bridge was built by the Victorians using the new British technology of the day, building with metal beams. Both the Tower bridge & Westminster Parliament were constructed with this method & were then cladded with stone. The Victoria tower at Westminster Parliament was the tallest metal beamed building in the World when constructed in 1860 at a height of 323 ft. The first multi floored building built with metal beams was in England: Ditherington Flax Mill had been built in 1797 using cast iron beams. The first iron bridge can be seen at Iron Bridge in Shropshire England & was completed in 1779. The use of quality steel (including beams for construction) was also created in Britain, with the Bessemer process (Sir Henry Bessemer) in 1856. Sir Alastair Pilkington invented the process of manufacture of plate glass. Imagine New York or any other modern city globally without three of Britain's greatest inventions, building with metal beams, making steel & plate glass for windows!! Lol. 🇬🇧❤🇺🇸

The skit with the fake nose, when he said "a local bridge, for local people", was a reference to a comedy show called "The League of Gentlemen" and an inbred couple who run the village shop, "this is a local shop for local people". The reason Tower Bridge is the only one to the East of the Port of London is, it's a drawbridge, so the roadway rises up to allow ships with masts to get underneath. .

The local shop set was built quite close to where I used to live. For years after it was burnt down in the programme people would come looking for it. I was asked a number of times 'where is it?'. The answer I gave was 'you do know it was burnt down, don't you?'

When his nose looks weird he is referencing“the league of gentlemen” a British comedy series. A mix of comedy/ horror….it’s not to everyone’s taste, but give it a try😉 I’m new to your channel, loving your reactions to uk stuff 😂 Would be great to actually see you react to some classic British comedy series. 😊👍

That clip in the Rotherhithe tunnel must be old, because the traffic is moving.

"The fundamental Pacmanaty" must be one of the greatest phrases ever uttered.

@2:16: They're connected. Because there was shipping there, any bridge build would have to be moveable like tower bridge, open wide enough for ocean-going ships plus their rigging, and across a wider part of the river. All of which comes with drawbacks and costs. Or they would need to be extremely tall with massive off- and on-ramps, which is an even worse idea.

It's a fairly known fact that building new roads (including bridges for cars) or widening roads, or raising speed limits, causes slower traffic in towns even surprisingly smallish. It's a bit unintuative, but was proven by American traffic researchers back in the 50ies if I remember correctly.

The problem with draining the Thames is the river is massive. Where would all the inland water go that the Thames sends to the sea? The Thames is not just London. It's a massive ecological feature of England. So no, we cannot just drain it. It's not even a consideration that can be taken seriously. It was a joke. It's the longest river in England.

West London and East London are very cool in different ways. I work in London a couple of days each week, near Ealing Art College, where Freddie Mercury used to go. Ronnie Wood from the Rolling Stones went there too. There are many stories about musicians, writers, artists, etc....we are very lucky with our talent and our architecture!

The Millennium Bridge problem was not due to the weight of people using it. It had a resonant frequency that caused it to wobble due to people walking in step, like marching soldiers.

"Does it harbour a lot of wildlife that would miss it ?" - great pun (even if it unintentional).

His odd nose appearance is referencing 'The League of Gentlemen' - a UK surreal horror comedy that was set in a fictitious town - Royston Vasey - a reference itself the real name of Roy Chubby Brown - a notorious British 'blue' comedian. There was a sketch about a local shop, kept by two weird sisters (played by men) who would serve only local people "a local shop for local people". The sisters had that odd turned-up nose.

It was difficult to build realistic bridges to the east of the port and docks otherwise the ships wouldn't haven't been able to get through to the docks and unload their cargoes !

A really frustrating and surprising consequence, even further along the Thames to the Estuary, is jobs. Your job market is cut in half completely, but you’re still bombarded with jobs being less than a mile away by job sites! It’s so frustrating!!! ‘Hi, we have your dream job 0.5 miles away! Apply now!’ ‘Oh yes where? Oh. It’s a 2 hour drive!’

This has probably been mentioned already. However, I don't have time to check out all the comments at the moment, so apologies if you've already read this... The river passing through London is the river Thames. Pronounced 'Tems'. At the estuary, it flows into the North Sea. It is a tidal river. At the estuary, there are two high tide and two low tide times per day. East of the boundary of Greater London, on the northern shore of the river, is the county of Essex. On the south shore of the river is the county of Kent. There are two Bridges on the river Thames east of London Bridge. The iconic Tower Bridge, located close by the Tower of London. This bridge is the subject of another of Jay Foreman's London videos. The other bridge is located much further east at the Dartford/Thurrock Crossing between Kent and Essex. The bridge itself is named the 'Queen Elizabeth II Bridge'. It was opened officially by HM the late Queen in 1991 and forms part of the M25 ring road around outer London. All lanes of traffic across the bridge travel in one direction. From Essex south to Kent. The traffic travelling on the M25 north from Kent to Essex goes through two tunnels under the river.

4:00. Jay is about to discover why walking through the Rotherhithe tunnel is a bad idea! I did it once when I was young and foolish. Never again....

He taped his nose up when saying "local bridge, for local people" as there's some characters in comedy show The League of Gentleman who have that nose and say they run "a local shop, for local people". Deep cut.

Hammersmith Bridge closure is not without issues, much of the traffic shifted to Putney Bridge and Wandsworth Bridge, and this has had an impact on the local traffic there and also to the bridge structures themselves.

Tower Bridge opens up .Any Bridges to the East would have to be bigger and open up even more for shipping.

The League of Gentlemen is a bucket list must to watch. very funny and excellent acting

Full of See You Next Tuesdays is what he said, not literally of course.

I love Rotherhithe, the east of tower bridge, it makes for lovely Tameside walking, free of traffic and has fascinating beaches and history going back centuries. Of course, it’s local to me.

Keep reacting to him please! recommend watching them in order though

That text about the wobbling of the Millennium Bridge wasn't totally accurate - it wasn't struggling with the weight of pedestrians, the design had simply failed to account for structural resonance and it turned out that hundreds of people walking across it rather unavoidably ended it matching the rhythm of the footsteps without realising it and the vibrations caused by hundreds of feet striking the surface nearly simultaneously created a mechanical resonance really, really close to the resonant frequency of the materials the bridge (as in the frequency its molecules naturally vibrate at) causing a feedback loop between the two that over time would have led to structural collapse. To make matters worse, as the pedestrians using it adjusted their gaits to the swaying they ended up walking more in lockstep than they otherwise would have, causing the swaying to increase in intensity and thus more walking in lockstep so the initial feedback loop just got worse and worse.

The nose thing is a reference to characters in a BBC comedy series called the League of Gentlemen and the upturned nosed characters catch phrase was.. "a local shop for local people."

JJLA, the beeped word at 5:36 was c*nts. 😂

@ 7:22 when you asked what was with his nose and if in reference to something, yes! The somewhat surreal and dark comedy progranne of the late 90's early 00's "The League of Gentlemen" [AKA "the League of Gents"] written by a team of 4 men, 3 of whom play all the characters in the show. It is worth checking out, I recommend you do watch them in order though because there is a loose throughline that connects everything so it makes (slightly) more sense. in particular the nose relates to Edward and Tubbs who run the local shop. It is a good show, but it is a local show for local people...there's nothing for you here!

Tower Bridge raises, allowing masted ships to pass underneath it. Any bridge down stream would necessarily have to do the same but be bigger because the river is wider there.

There’s a few issues with removing the river, wildlife is one, but also a number of other rivers outside London come from the Thames, it’d have really far reaching consequences and would straight ruin a number of businesses which would damage the economy

until the mid 20th century London was one of busiest ports in the world. so ships sailed up the Thames and were offloaded by huge cranes that have since been removed. ppl may remember the cranes lowering in salute as the barge carrying Winston Churchill to his resting place passed by in 1965.

I’ve lived in both East London and Southeast London, most people just use public transport instead of driving, especially if we need to cross the river, it’s much quicker!

It's a well known fact in urban design. "One more lane, bro!" is a meme for urban transport geeks, because we all know that adding an extra lane to a highway makes traffic worse, not better. The principle is known as "induced demand". Similarly, making cycling infrastructure better encourages people to cycle, and thereby takes cars off the road, reducing traffic and also making things better for the people who do have to drive for whatever reason.

he is referencing the league of gentlemen series

The reason his nose changed, was because of an oldish comedy sketch show called "The League of Gentlemen". Your going to have to watch the show to get the reference, but i was laughing at it. So it is worth a look.

The fact the millenium bridge never collapsed is pretty outstanding. Go look up some videos of the bridge swaying when it first opened. Terrifying.

London's most famous bridge, Tower Bridge, is to the east of London Bridge. I think it's the most easterly. Is why it opens for boats.

Fantastic!

Shipping - East London is a port - if you want ships to get to it you can’t have convention bridges because the ships can’t get past. If you really must have a bridge it has to be high (like the Sydney Harbour Bridge), lift (like Tower Bridge) or turn - all of which are complex and expensive, especially as the span increases. Tower Bridge was expensive, if you needed to build something similar to the east it would need to be wider so even more complex and expensive.

The logic is the same for motor bridges and pedestrian bridges. If you build more ways to cross by using X means of transport, that means of transport will become more popular. You build more tunnels for cars? You encourage people to drive more cars. You build more bridges for bikes? You encourage more people to drive bikes. The demand for transport isn't entirely static, but assuming it were, then people will choose their mode of transportation based on what is easy, fast, and cheap. So if you make it faster and easier to take the car than go by bike, that's what people tend to do.

I have walked under the Thames from Greenwich to the Isle of Dogs. Quite an experience !! 7:45

You absolutely have to watch comedy series League of Gentlemen to get the local bridge for local people reference 😄

No, you got it the wrong way round! To the east, it's wider and marshy as you head towards the North Sea and sunny Southend on Sea.

JJ you _meant_ to say, "...no bridges East of Tower Bridge" 🤔?! _Not_ "East of London Bridge", as _Tower_Bridge_ _is_ East of London Bridge. 😊❤🖖

2.31 most ships back then we're still under sail and could not fit under bridges. Masts over 100' tall were not uncommon.

A local bridge for local people is a reference to league of gentlemen, a dark comedy series

your own work is not bad in comparison with them. thanks for being here!

The Silvertown tunnel is well underway. Just a pity it will cost a fortune in tolls to use.

I'm subbed and watched all of Jay's vids, but I also really enjoyed watching your reaction to it. I live not far from the river and as a young 17yo 30 years ago worked the pleasure boats taking American tourist from Westminster Pier to Hampton Court and back, fun trips but Richmond on the way is the best spot.

I'm a new comer to you, and your reactions are pretty soothing

Its been proven that the amount of traffic increases whenever new roads are built rather than easing pressure elsewhere.

A couple of shopkeepers in the black comedy League of Gentlemen had noses like this and were always saying the shop was local for local people 😂

the idea of more infrastructure dedicated to cars making more car journeys and thus prioritising other public transport or pedestrian solutions is actually very well documented, unfortunately the UK is far far behind the rest of Europe with this idea who have already seen massive effect from adopting such policies. as for the US it simply flat out refuses to consider the idea despite it being suggested many many times from both internal and international sources, the US design has always focused around the use of cars and its lack of any decent mass transit systems means to even start to benefit from such a policy it would need to redesign most of its transport infrastructure.

The Millienium bridge is now perfectly safe and still but the nickname 'The Wobbly Bridge' stuck for years after it was fixed.

Can you imagine the amount of archaeological discoveries that we'd find if we drained the Thames?!

You are right to be sceptical of a view of civil engineering based upon a potential change in the way people travel. The only reason "the tide is shifting" in London, is because transport in London is absolute hell. I would expect ULEZ and Congestion Charging are the real culprits of people not using cars. That, and how shitty it is to drive a car in London. If they actually built these tunnels and bridges rather than spending millions just talking and researching them, it wouldn't funnel all the traffic across a limited number of bridges. If you consider that now, if you want to get across to the other bank in the East, you have to drive across London, go across a bridge/tunnel, and then drive across London again... or go out of London, to the M25 and go all around London and then back in, a bridge or tunnel in the East makes perfect sense. And if he's correct, and "green" transport takes over, then just convert that car bridge to a pedestrian one later. It's not like the costs are hugely different.

His nose is a reference to a TV program called Little Britan where one of the characters (either for real or because of make-up) has a nose like that....the phrase he uses [local for local people] is used in the program.

That traffic increases when you build more roads is a well-known phenomenon related to induced demand. There are various videos on here explaining how and when it happens.

Draining the river would impact any fish that spawn in rivers and grow up at sea like salmon and sharks and ?

Height! The ocean going tall-ships would need a very high bridge, the ports were all east of the bridges. Only London Bridge has a centre rising section.

More Jay Foreman

Am a new subsciber, I really enjoy your lack of "YO, WHAD UP RU-vid" and nice passive tone.

You should see some of his music and comedy. Try “slightly imperfect girl” for starters :).

I approve of the Garden Bridge idea over all of them but ships?

The guys channel,has some informative and funny videos.

One of the reasons that all the industry was in the East rather than the West, was that the prevailing winds were from the West and therefore the stink of the poor and the industrial processes was carried out to the sea.

There is only one to the esat. Tower bridge which opens tolet shipsthough. London was a port so in the age of sailing ships yiu would have to make any bridges high!

I can tell you for a fact the beep at 5:31 was ''c**ts''

Yep you should definitely look up league of gentleman.

Canary Wharf is (mostly) full of *redacted* but occasionally my partner as his office is there. Still a pain in the arse to navigate though, especially when meeting up with said person.

2:28 there were too many big ships in the ports so they would have to build big bridges able to fit these ships

Do we need the River Thames? As it is the whole point of Lkndon's existence, yes we do. We don't need cars, though.

when London was the biggest port in the world the ships where sailing ships travelling from London the the sea meant going east the river being wider meant it was impossible to build a bridge long enough to span the river and high enough for the sailing ships to pass under the only option was to build more bridges like tower bridge and because of the span that would have been far too expensive the cheap option was to build no bridges to the east also remember at this time people traveled by horse and cart and as most trade took place in London there was little need to consider local traffic

The briges would have been in the way of ships east of Tower Bridge.

Draining the river wouldn't work lol😂 cause the river stretches long past London, and provides water to English canels that are popular with our amazing long boats

The "nose " is aping "The League of Gentlemen".

They have proved that, if you build a road people use it, but it does not improve the traffic flow of the area you are trying to help. You just have to look at our national car park, commonly known as the M25. The M25 is a road to nowhere, basicly it's the biggest 2 way round about in the world. All it does is go around London. The idea of it was to relieve the traffic problem in London, which it did not. The M25 started off as a mix of 2 and 3 lane segments, it got so bad they had to upgrade the 2 lane segments to 3 lane, now there is/was talk of increasing it to 4 lanes each way, as it is so congested.

It's not THE London Bridge, THE Tower Bridge. Just London Bridge and Tower Bridge.

6:20 I can see my house.

Often, unless you can get an excessive amount of capacity for cars, building more infrastructure just means more people shift to driving, but increase their travel times. For example, 3 years after the Katy Freeway expansion to 26 lanes, travel times had increased by 30-60 % during rush hour, because it caused so much additional traffic. A new car tunnel will cause more traffic in the neighboring areas, which will make walking and cycling slower, less pleasant and more dangerous, and will make public transport slower. So people will shift to cars. If you could build enough capacity, then it wouldn't be as much of an issue, then it would only cost in terms of healthcare, quality of life and environment, not travel times. But that would be impossible in London.

a local shop for local people

Use the Bridge you can see it in the video

I personally don't want the river to be drained. The Thames is an iconic part of London and it would be a shame to lose it

He covets the precious things

Two things. Firstly, Jay didn't really explain it in the most simple terms. In the old days, London had big cargo docks, and sailing ships were TALL. Big tall ships can't fit under bridges, so you need big fancy bridges that open up (like Tower Bridge) or have no bridges at all in order for ships to be able to get to the docks. Second, your comment "I don't believe that" about the fact that building roads / bridges to relieve congesting does the opposite is wrong. It might sound counterintuitive, and it's definitely un-American, but but it's a simple fact. Building more roads causes more traffic. It doesn't relieve traffic. Ever.

It cost £53mill to cancel the garden bridge. A string of consultancies and architects needed paying. The idea of removing road access to cars to reduce traffic is not a good one if you are doing so before alternative transport os in place. Car access is also useful to business where public transport is not suitable. So to make bridges in East London but not allow cars to cross it will not benefit the prosperity of the region, even with cycle connections, light rail and public footpaths. To close a two lane road for cycle use only in order to discourage cars is having minimal impact on the air quality and simply making life more difficult if your not sporty or at least spy and time rich enough for public transport.

I grew up in east london, never wanted to go south of the river and when I had to we walked through the Greenwich foot tunnel

There is very little wildlife in the Thames, the water is almost as toxic as a 4 chan thread. Almost.

Notice that the word 'the' is not used before bridge names.......

Little Britain Characters with selotaped noises.

Is it just me, or is the original video slowed down slightly? It sounds lower-pitched.