WHEN one first hears of it, it just sounds like something too crazy – or too much like something out of one of The Fast and Furious movies – to be true; one of London's iconic double-decker buses leaping across the gap made by the two halves of Tower Bridge as it opens to let shipping through.

However, it has been claimed over the years that such an incident really happened.

Is this true?

VERDICT:

TRUE

Yes, such an incident happened on Dec 30, 1952, when bus driver Albert Gunter decided that speeding ahead was the safer option than stopping to well, mind the gap opening up in front of him.

According to an account by the BBC of the incident, Gunter had only moments to react as there was no warning that the bridge was going to split into two – something it is designed to do to let ships through as they head up the River Thames. 

“The traffic lights were green, there was no ringing of a warning hand-bell. He noticed the road in front of him seemed to be falling away.

He, his bus, its 20 passengers and one conductor were on the edge of the southern bascule - a movable section of road - which was continuing to rise.It was too late to go back, too late to stop,” said BBC writer Bethan Bell in a Dec 2024 article on the incident. 

“The former wartime tank-driver dropped down two gears, and slammed his foot on the accelerator,” added Bell.

Bell then said – and cited – a Jan 1953 article by Time Magazine, which interviewed both Gunter and Peter Dunn, a passenger on the bus. 

"Everything happened terribly quickly. I realised that the part we were on was rising. It was horrifying. I felt we had to keep on or we might be flung into the river,” said Gunter. 

And as for Dunn's account, he said that “before we knew it, we were going across Tower Bridge - but just as we had gone over the first half of the section that goes up, there was a loud crashing sound and I was thrown on to the floor."

He added that once safely across, Gunter came around to invite the passengers to have a look at the gap.

"He said that he had been a tank-driver during the war and that a tank would have had no trouble getting on to the other side and decided to see if a double-decker could do the same,” said Dunn.

There were injuries, unfortunately; the conductor broke his leg and a passenger fractured their collarbone, but there were no deaths.

So yes, one of London's famous double-decker buses can do a leap of faith across Tower Bridge if the situation warrants it – and a suitably-skilled driver is at the helm.

SOURCES:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn7m8dmkglxo

https://www.towerbridge.org.uk/discover/history/bus-jump