Have three of them, all involving the same bridge, in Edmonton, Alberta. One scary, one really dumb, and one just kinda neat, plus a related really dumb incident.
They call it the High Level Bridge, as opposed to the Low Level Bridge....the railroad tracks on the top of the first are about 150 feet above the river. The second bridge is much lower, but has nothing to do with the story anyway..
Trains run over the top of the HLB, two lanes of cars under that.
ualberta.ca
When we were about 12-13 a group of us decided to walk across the top on the tracks, in the middle of the night, no guard rails. Luckily no trains came by, as the only escape should one come were little decks out the side every few hundred feet..... scary, but nothing too serious...we were sober.
A couple of years later, there was a railway strike. Buncha kids in a '57 Chevy. Well a '57 Chev will fit on tracks. Let a bunch of air out of the tires, 2:30 or so in the morning, and voila.. No mishaps, and we went really slow, and to this day I am still amazed we not only got across, but on and off without getting caught. We were not sober, but I think the driver was.
A bunch more years later, the High Level Bridge becomes, in addition to carrying trains and cars.... a tourist attraction, or is it art? I think the idea was sold to the city as art.... it is also, a waterfall.
Check it out: discoveredmonton.com
Despite the efforts of the one and only police boat, every sort of craft possible that would float well lubricated and/or otherwise stimulated bodies, drifted though the deluge when it was first turned on. The warnings of capsizes, drowning, and impounded craft, proved to be without basis. It was just fun.
Now back to the car on the railroad tracks trick.
I didn't participate in this next one, but I do have pictures somewhere, of the car after the fact. Word of the bridge episode went far and wide around Edmonton. There were cars all over outside town trying it out as the police in town were watching. One friend "borrowed" his mother's new Merc convertible, went a couple of miles out of town to a friend's horse ranch, let some air out of the tires, and got on the tracks.
Unfortunately I think they'd had a few too many beers, went too fast, slipped off the tracks, and got hung up sideways. No problem, they were close to the ranch, one guy stayed with the car in case anyone or anything came along, the others ran back to the ranch, and grabbed a tractor with some kind of forklift type thing on the front. I wasn't there to see how they screwed up the lifting off the tracks part....but I sure did see the two holes in the side of the car the next day. |
