New UK Bicycle Tunnel offers a History Lesson

“A tonic for the nation.”  This was the slogan and hope of the 1951 Festival of Britain.  Held in the summer of ’51 throughout the UK, the festival was conceived as a way to give a lift to Britain’s people as they continued to rebuild following the Second World War.  The idea was to “promote the British contributions to science, technology, industrial design, architecture and the arts.”

The centerpiece of it all was the South Bank Exhibition located in Central London on the south bank of the Thames.  To make way for the exhibition a number of warehouses and scores of middle-class homes were demolished—much to the chagrin and dismay of the people who worked in the factories and lived in the homes.  The new and “improved” South Bank was transformed into the modern idea of urban design.  The principles of this nouveau building style included multi-level buildings, elevated walkways and the idea of leaving streets and roadways to automobile traffic and building separate routes specific to walkers and bike riders.  Today this form of urban planning is known as Industrial Modernist design.  The highlight of the South Bank Exhibition was the Dome of Discovery (pictured), a temporary structure built to house and display examples of the earth, the sky, the ocean, the polar regions, and more.  At the time it was the largest domed structure in the world.  It was later demolished and sold for scrap.  Today the site is part of a botanical garden near the London Eye.

South Bank was not alone in hosting the Festival of Britain, the rest of the country held events and sponsored projects themed to the ideals of the festival.  Two such towns were Howdon and Jarrow and together they built the Tyne Cyclist and Pedestrian Tunnel.  The tunnel is actually two tunnels in one, a ten foot wide pedestrian tube and a 12 foot in diameter bicycle tunnel.  The tunnels run for just about 900 feet in length and they sit about 40 feet below the River Tyne.  These tunnels were the first-ever to be built strictly for use by walkers and bike riders.  A unique feature of the tunnels are the escalators at each end.  Made of wood and still operational today, the escalators—at the time—were the highest vertical climb of any such apparatus in the world—85 feet.  The escalators were refurbished in 2011.  Each month approximately 20,000 people ride or walk through the tunnel.  

Fast forward to today.  On April 8 in Bath, England scores of bike riders were on hand for the ribbon cutting to open the Two Tunnels Greenway (pictured).  The all new greenway has two tunnels specific to walkers and bike riders.  The tunnels are part of a four mile stretch of the abandoned Somerset and Dorset Railway.  The greenway runs through the Devonshire tunnel in Bloomfield then through the second tunnel at Combe Down.  The Combe Down tunnel is over one mile in length making it the longest non-automobile tunnel in the UK.  In addition to the tunnels the greenway rolls over an old aqueduct.  It seems Industrial Modernism has returned to England.  

The SBT crew took a holiday last week.  We are back to work...  The website has been updated with some new features, please visit www.stickybottleteam.net. 

No Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Ride!

By now most readers of the SBT blog know of our keen interest in the James Bond movies and books.  Hopefully many of you have checked out the blog post The Definitive List of Bond Movies from back in November.  We timed that list to coincide with the release of Skyfall.  Among the Sticky Bottle Team we had some discussion and protest over the placement of Goldfinger in the bottom five of the definitive list.  We hope to make things right with our Goldfinger fans with this post that takes a look at a bike ride that one could take that mirrors Bond’s drive through Switzerland in his 1964 Aston Martin DB5.   The Aston wasn’t alone in the Swiss Alps.  The bad guy Auric Goldfinger was riding in a classic 1937 Rolls Royce III Sundance De Ville and Tilly Masterson was behind the wheel of a brand new Ford Mustang.  

Let’s put a bike on the road, one that climbs well and start pedaling.  We are climbing the Furka Pass and starting out in the Alpine village of Andermatt.  The Furka Pass links Andermatt in the Canton of Uri with Gletsch in the Canton of Valais.   A pass is just a simple term for a break in mountain peaks, also known as a saddle.  But still this is high country, remember we are talking about the Alps.  The pass sits at an altitude of 2436 meters above sea level. 

The Furka is one of the highest Alpine passes in Switzerland. The Rhone River flows westwards towards the Mediterranean and on the opposite side the Furka-Reuss drains towards the North Sea.  The views are incredible with good sight lines of the Urseren Valley and the Gotthard Massif, an exquisite glacial formation.  On a clear day you can see the Matterhorn.  This ride will have to be done in the summer months, the Furka Pass lies in one of the snowiest regions in Switzerland.  In the cold weather months cars and trucks use the Furka Base Tunnel, opened in 1982.

The Furka Pass has never been much for automobile traffic due to the length and hairpin turns. It's much quicker to go through the tunnel.  The road, when it was built in 1866 was simply an east-west crossing of the Alps.  It is to this day the longest pass road in Switzerland.  Always popular with tourists due to the fun driving experience and spectacular view, the people that do drive the pass are doing so for the sheer fun it brings.  A number of hotels were built along the pass so overnight accommodations are plentiful.

The Rhone glacier provides a unique ice grotto formation and in the last few years a steam  railway for tourists has opened.  It is here we recommend you stop, take a look around and then decide what to do next.  From Andermatt to the glacier it's 23 kilometers so it may be a nice place to turn around for the ride back to Andermatt to complete your nearly 50K ride.  For the adventurous riders continue on to Gletsch with eight more hairpin turns and an additional seven kilometers.  For the true Bond fan it is believed Gletsch provided the petrol station where Bond dropped off Tilly Masterson following the crash of her Mustang.  

We have a review of some "Bikes with Flair" and a new product review and much more on our website www.stickybottleteam.net.