Just a bit more to do.
Links and acknowledgements
Thanks and acknowledgements
I would like to thank the following people and websites for their help in my researches for this website:
- Google Earth for helping me find the bridge in the first place.
- Keith and Val Padgett, whose Falkland Islands website has some excellent recent photos of the Bodie Creek Bridge. Thank you for sending me the full sized images.
- Alexander Simo and his wife, for publishing the most graphic and detailed photos
of the bridge I have found anywhere. For example, look at
this one. They told me:
"We are happy to hear that you like our photos. This old bridge is located in a very picturesque place. The area around it is uninhabited nowadays. While taking these photos we saw some hares and geese. But this bridge is one of the places on the Falkland Islands which is very popular with tourists. It is mentioned in every guidebook about the Falkland Islands (even the price is known - 2290 pounds). Unfortunately, the bridge is not in good condition and closed for crossing even for pedestrians. Goose Green is still exists, but only 17 people live there, but there is one school and one shop. On the other side of the bridge only one house remains inhabited in Walker Creek. Nowadays it is cheaper to detour round by car than repair the bridge."Their account of their tour of Falkland's, Chili, Tahiti 2006 is in Russian, but a selection of their photos is listed on the Look at it now page.
- Leona Roberts at the Falkland Island Museum and National Trust, for her friendly advice, comments and the additional information she found for me.
- The Falkland Islands Information Portal has a timeline which includes the building of the Bodie Creek Suspension Bridge, the sheep shearing sheds at Goose Green and even the performance of "The downfall of Zachariah Fee" as milestones in the islands' history.
- Phil Middleton at Falkland Collectibles for the First Day covers he sold me.
- Falkland Islands Philatelic Bureau for celebrating the Bodie Creek bridge (and others) in their stamps
- Liz Dimmlich at the Falkland Islands Tourist Board for her help and support, plus the account of the history of Goose Green.
- Wickham, who has a site dedicated to his Falkland memories with accounts of his adventures at the bridge in February and again in December 1984 while the bridge was still open for business. He has a photo of a Land Rover crossing the Bodie Creek bridge and assures me my grandfather built in a lot of safety margin!
- Joanna Vincent who photographed The Bodie Creek Bridge when she visited in 2006
- Sharon Jaffray, for the very nice article she wrote about this site in the Penguin News.
- Simon Rouse, for his photos and account of crossing the bridge by Land Rover in 1996/7
- Canon Stephen Palmer, for his well-researched, beautifully written and illustrated account of "The Building of the Bodie Creek Bridge, 1925" which was published in the Falkland Islands Journal 2010 and also for his biography of my grandfather, published in the same edition.
Is It The Most Southerly Suspension Bridge?
It's a claim that have often seen on the web and have been happy to repeat, but is it true? I am indebted to Ana Berbel who wrote to me recently with a question about a very similar old bridge built in 1918 over the Rio Grande in Tierra del Fuego. Clearly it was further south than the Bodie Creek Bridge and it predated the one on the Falkland Islands.
These pictures she sent me show that it was recently destroyed in a storm. Maybe this proud claim is now valid after all?
Falkland Islands Links
I have also found some terrific photographs and descriptions on these websites.
- Falkland Islands Gallery with Photos by Katie Townsend gives an overview of Darwin and Goose Green
- Falkland Islands information centre for visitors to the islands
- Falkland Islands Government has some useful links
- Entry, with photos at Bridgemeister.com
- More Bridgemeister bridges The similarity to the Golden Gate bridge is uncanny!
- Wikipedia entry for the Bodie Creek Suspension Bridge I think this was the first place where I found the bridge after Google Earth!
- The Bridge at Bodie Creek by Virtual Tourist member zweiblumen
- falklandstravel.com gives an honorable mention to the Bodie Creek Bridge in the section on Darwin.
- Mysteria magazine has a description of the Falkland Islands and photos.
- LatinTravel.com has a Discovery Journal entry which describes the Bodie Creek bridge
- かって気ままに世界旅行 - フォークランドの写真 I think a Japanese tourist visited the Falkland Islands and saw the bridge.
- A great picture from the Mysterra ImageBank
- More from the same album in the Mysterra ImageBank
- The Falkland Islands topographic map on wikimedia shows the position of the bridge near Goose Green
- Answers.com entry for David Rowell Co. who supplied the bridge
- Kelper's photos on Smugmug. A very tight turn? Not for a sheep.
- Photo by wertypop on the Heresy Online Forum. Unusual place to find such a picture, but I loved the comment “Bodie Creek bridge (the World most sothernly suspesion bridge and most dangrouse)” I can’t argue with that!
- Comment by DaveSumner (Tourist ) in Google Earth Community. "Yes there is a suspension bridge in the Falkland Islands" He also has links to the bridge in Google earth and Google maps.
- The rusty chains really show up in this shot from ShinySideUp
- Beautifully angled and lit photo by Nico Housen.
- Discussion of the Bodie Creek Bridge at 84 years on the Eng-Tips forum.
I would also like to thank all those who have either commented in the guestbook or have taken the trouble to email me with their feedback, accounts of their visits to this area and the many photographs they have sent me. It has been a delight to receive such encouraging feedback from all over the world.
Finally, a great big thank you to my grandfather Charles Peters for building the bridge and taking his photos. Thanks to my father 'Pete' for letting me scan the pictures and thanks to my wife Audrey for her patience while I built this site.
