Edinburgh Castle

Hello,

I hope that you have had a good week.

I want to share with you an image of the One O’clock gun at Edinburgh Castle.

What is the One o’Clock gun?

The firing of the gun dates back to 1861, when businessman John Hewitt brought the idea to Edinburgh from Paris. It’s now an Edinburgh tradition, but the ‪one o’clock‬ gun originally came into being out of necessity over 150 years ago. It has been 158 years since the first audible indication of the time was made during bad weather at Edinburgh Castle. The citizens of Edinburgh, as well as the ships docked in the ports of Leith and Firth of Forth over two miles away, were able to hear the signal, quickly making it a curious visitor attraction. With an electric cable stretching over 4,000 feet from the rear of the gun to the Royal Observatory on Calton Hill, the original 18-pound gun was operated via a mechanical trigger at precisely ‪1pm‬ each day apart ‪from Sunday‬, Good Friday and Christmas Day. The 94-pound artillery weapon was provided by the Royal Artillery. The weapon of choice is now a L118 Light Gun. This particular weapon has been in service approximately 15 years, and is traditionally fired by a volunteer District Gunner from the 105th Regiment Royal Artillery.

Have a good weekend.

Lee

Tower Bridge, London

Nikon D800 f11 13sec ISO100 24-70mm@45mm

Another image of the World famous Tower Bridge in London on the River Thames. Taken at 04:24hrs with a prominent Moon showing. 

Tower Bridge (built 1886–1894) is a combined bascule and suspension bridge in London, England which crosses the River Thames. It is close to the Tower of London, from which it takes its name, and has become an iconic symbol of London.

The bridge consists of two bridge towers tied together at the upper level by two horizontal walkways, designed to withstand the horizontal tensional forces exerted by the suspended sections of the bridge on the landward sides of the towers. The vertical components of the forces in the suspended sections and the vertical reactions of the two walkways are carried by the two robust towers. The bascule pivots and operating machinery are housed in the base of each tower. The bridge's present colour scheme dates from 1977, when it was painted red, white and blue for Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee. Originally it was painted a mid greenish-blue colour.

Please feel free to share this post on your social media, giving credit to the photographer Lee Ramsden www.leeramsden.com

Thanks