The Tower of London.... a very haunted place !

    Do ghosts really exist? There are lots of people who say that they do; and I am one of them.
     Many of Britain's ancient castles have ghosts. One of the most famous "haunted castles" in England is actually the Tower of London .
    During the Tower's long history, many men and women were thrown into its dark dungeons, or executed outside its gates! Among the most famous was Lady Jane Grey, Queen of England in the year 1554.
    Jane was just 17 when she became Queen, on July 9th 1554; however, at the same time another woman, Mary, thought that she ought to be Queen. Mary's supporters were stronger than Jane's, and within days Jane was sent to the Tower of London. On 19th July poor Jane had her head cut off outside the Tower!
    Since then, it is said that the ghost of Lady Jane Grey wanders through the rooms and corridors of the Tower of London.
    Other ghosts are not so famous. The village of Prestbury, in Gloucestershire, is reputed to be one of the most haunted villages in England.
    Many villagers have heard - and some say they have seen - the "headless horseman" who rides through the village on December 31st! People say that he was a soldier who fought in the English Civil War, in the 17th century.

    In the same village, in an old cottage, there is a ghost known as the "spinette player". Sometimes at night, people hear the sound of someone playing this old musical instrument. The music always comes from a room that is empty.
    These are just some of Britain's well-known ghosts; but there are lots of less-known ghosts too. I know; I have encountered one of them.

 

    Several years ago, I went to stay with some friends who lived in an old house in the country. I had not told them I was coming, and when I arrived, they already had other visitors.
    "Never mind," said my friend Ella. "You can sleep in the small guest room. We don't often use it, but you'll be all right for one night."
    As we said goodnight, Ella added. "Oh, and please, lock the door before you go to bed. Otherwise it may open by itself."
    Well I locked the door, lay down in bed, and went to sleep. During the night, I slept badly; I didn't really know if I was asleep or awake. But suddenly, I knew I was awake. Hands were touching my face. I tried to push them away, but there was nothing. I found the light switch, and put on the light. There was no one in the room.
    "It was just a dream," I thought. And I went back to sleep.
    When I woke up next morning, I got another surprise. The door, which I had shut and locked, was open! During breakfast, I told Ella about my strange dream, and about the open door.
    "You too!" she replied. "Yes, I know. that's why we don't often use that bedroom. It's the blind lady!"
    "What blind lady?" I asked.
    "Well, you see, many years ago, the people who lived here had a daughter who was blind. That was her bedroom. She died when she was about 30. And since then, she has kept coming back to her room. She always feels the sheets, before getting into bed. Several visitors have had the same experience..... But she was a lovely girl. She has never hurt anyone."
    I felt the skin on the back of my neck go cold.... Since then, I have always believed in ghosts!


WORDS:
all over: everywhere in - blind: unable to see - encountered: met - execute: decapitate, cut off a head - guest: invited person - haunted: inhabited by a ghost - never mind: no problem - otherwise: if you do not - reputed: said - ride: go on a horse - spinette: like a small piano - within days: in a few days

 

 

Petit's "artistic crime of the century" inspired the films 'Man on a Wire' and 'The Walk

 

On August 7, 1974, a young Frenchman caught the attention of jaded New Yorkers by wire-walking between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. People in the street gasped at the sight 1,350 feet up, and the photo and film coverage of the seemingly spontaneous event was extensive enough that this ultimate high-wire act went 1974’s version of viral.

The 24-year-old acrobat in question was named Philippe Petit. He was initially regarded by police as a perpetrator and was arrested as soon as he left his perch, though charges were soon dropped. Petit’s feat was commemorated in James Marsh’s 2008 Oscar-winning documentary Man on Wire, and in The Walk, a film directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Petit.

Here's a look back at the story behind “the artistic crime of the century":

A magician from the age of six and former street juggler, Petit began training on the wire as a teenager. In 1971, his first big public (and illegal) wire walk was between the towers of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. His next came in 1973 when he walked between the pylons of the enormous steel arch Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia. Perhaps these were just warm-ups for the big event since Petit traces his obsession to an article he read about the World Trade Center in 1968, during the construction of the twin towers.

 

Petit first visited New York in January 1974, took a look at the Twin Towers, and gulped. But soon, he had hired a helicopter to take aerial photographs (the better to construct a scale model). He also managed to sneak to the roof of one of the towers for a close-up reconnaissance; accompanying him was his first co-conspirator, photographer Jim Moore. Others would follow: juggler Francis Brunn, who supplied some funding for the project; Petit’s girlfriend Annie Allix, who faithfully provided whatever assistance was needed along the way; and Jean-Louis Blondeau, whose logistical support was critical to carrying out the plan.

The towers, being so tall, were designed to flex in the wind. To compensate for this potentially lethal feature, Petit added simulations to his practice. He positioned a 200-foot wire (the estimated distance between the two towers) on supports in a French field, and as he walked across with his 50-pound, 26-foot balancing pole, over and over again, day after day, his cohorts shook away.

One major challenge Petit and his friends faced was how to get their equipment to the top of the World Trade Center. The tightrope he planned to walk across was steel cable, no more than an inch thick but, given the quantity Petit would need to link the towers, weighing in at anywhere from 500 to 1,000 pounds. And once they got the cable up to the top, how were they going to position it? You can’t just toss hundreds of pounds of wire across a 110-story high, 200-foot wide space.

Petit recruited other people along the way to assist in his quest, but none were as crucial as Barney Greenhouse, who worked for the New York State Insurance Department on the 82nd floor of the south tower. Captivated by the plan, Greenhouse obtained fake building IDs for Petit and his crew, which allowed them to impersonate workers and gain access, along with documents that authorized them to bring equipment to the upper floors. After stepping on a nail during one scouting mission, Petit found he didn’t even need his fake ID — no one asked questions of a man on crutches.

The team settled on the idea of using a fishing line to run the steel cable between the towers, and after much consideration, Blondeau came up with the solution of bow and arrow to shoot the line from one tower to the other. Another logistical feat was anchoring the cavalleti (stabilizing wires), which ordinarily make contact with the ground but in this case needed to be connected back to the towers. None of this could be done on the fly, so to speak: careful planning and rehearsal went into a final push that had to happen overnight.

That night, August 6, Petit and two teammates ascended to the 104th floor of the south tower with their equipment. When a guard approached, one of the conspirators panicked and fled, while Petit and the other man hid under a tarp on an I-beam over an open elevator shaft. They remained there for hours, finally emerging when all seemed quiet and made their way to the roof. Blondeau and another recruit had similarly snuck up to the roof of the north tower, and they shot the fishing line across. All did not go smoothly: The line was so thin it was difficult to locate (Petit found it by getting naked and feeling it on his skin), and the steel cable flopped around for a while between the towers before the men managed to get it positioned.

Shortly after 7 a.m., Petit stepped off the south tower onto the wire and seemed to immediately find his confidence. He not only walked but knelt on one knee, laid down, conversed with gulls and taunted police officers ready to arrest him on either end. In all, Petit crossed the quarter-mile-high wire eight times.

After one unauthorized walk inside the Gothic structure on New York’s Upper West Side, Petit was named artist-in-residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. In September 1982, he wire-walked 150 feet over Amsterdam Avenue to the cathedral’s west face as part of a dedication ceremony. But most spectacularly, in 1999 he completed a 1,200-foot walk over a Little Colorado River branch of the Grand Canyon. This time, 1,600 feet separated the man on wire from the earth, where most of us can only stand and gape.