1010: London Bridge
By Clair D. Wilcoxon

In the year 1010 A.D., Olaf, soon to be King of Norway, did not plan to provide the story line for a nursery rhyme. The goal he and his crew shared was the riches to be gained by ransacking the city of London.

Of the crew, the rich farmers were seeking fame; the younger sons hoped for wealth to buy farms of their own. A successful raid was more profitable than ten fields of barley or hay for three winters.

Olaf's dragon-headed boats were ideally suited to weather the stormy waters of the North Sea. The sturdy keel made from a single tall oak tree provided the strength to support the sail, cargo and crew. The thin overlapping wedge-shaped boards were riveted together and caulked with fiber and tar to form the bottom and sides.

Such construction allowed the boats to flex and bend in the stormy waves, yet gracefully glide through calm waters and shallow rivers. Between London and the boats was the bridge first built by the Romans across the Thames River. Several times, the Spring floods had washed the bridge away. The wooden posts supporting the beams were strong enough for normal tides and water flow but not for floods.

Other ships had attacked the bridge before, but shopkeepers and soldiers had hurled heavy stones from the bridge. Light-weight ships - built for speed and flexibility - were smashed.

Perhaps Olaf had been on earlier raids, or perhaps he had a natural ability for figuring things out. His first two boats were covered with poles strengthened by weaving them together with small, flexible branches. He built a wicker roof to protect his boats.

The crashing rocks made the wicker roof creak and moan before the rocks splashed into the water. The strong ropes and iron hooks grabbed the wooden posts firmly. The sixty Vikings in each boat pulled with all their might on the oars. When the ropes tightened, the bridge groaned. With each oar stroke the bridge wiggled and shuddered. With a final mighty pull of the oars, the supporting poles of the bridge slid free from their mud base and followed the Viking ships down the river.

And that's where the nursery rhyme comes from:

"London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down. London Bridge is falling down, my fair lady."