It was a cold, crisp evening as I stood near to Traitors Gate of the Tower of London, looking down the River Thames at a wonderful view of Tower Bridge.
Tower Bridge, London, seen from The Tower of London, Traitors Gate
As I stood there, I wondered how many times had the bascules had been opened, the central section which has two sections swinging up and down, to allow shipping to pass up and down stream.
I wondered how many people had left London on journeys to other parts of the world, sometimes never to return, sometimes to return to a different London they had left, as London is continually changing.
I wondered for how many people this was their last sight as they went to beheaded, but then realised that Tower Bridge was opened in 1894, and the last beheading at the Tower of London was nearly 300 years earlier in 1601, one Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and the last execution being by firing squad in 1941 of a German spy Josef Jakobs.
I watched the flow if the River Thames, as the water was flowing back up stream from the Thames Estuary, flowing under the bridge as the tide was rising, just like the River Thames has always done bringing back travelers and people with memories of far off places and experiences.
I could not wait in the cold night air to see the water change direction to flow downstream, washing away the dirty water, the drift wood, the flotsam and jetsam. I had a warm home to get back to.
There is a saying “water under the bridge“, which means referring or looking back at past experiences, good or bad, which we have decided to or should have forgotten, to have left behind us.
Perhaps looking at way the flow of the River Thames under Tower Bridge is a better idiom or metaphor, for as past experiences are washed away, the tide brings them back once again, but there is even more fresh water from upstream which will eventually wash away the dirty water, the memories.