The Thames Barge Driving Race under oars' or "sweeps" and ride tidal river currents alone, up river. The event commemorates the skills of lightermen who moved freight this way along the Thames up until the 1930s and in a wider context it encourages ongoing interest in moving cargo via water and as a way to recruit younger people back into river trades.The teams are normally made up of employees of Thames Lighterage companies, Port of London Authority or are sponsored by local businesses. The best places to view the race are Tower Bridge, London Bridge and Westminster Bridge. During the 1970s Britain suffered a major
Richmond Bridge, London Goose", the £3,500,000 yacht of National Car Parks founder Sir Donald Gosling, became wedged under the central arch of the bridge, eventually being freed at low tide the next day. The eighth Thames bridge to be built in what is now Greater London, Richmond Bridge is currently the oldest surviving bridge over the Thames in Greater London, and the oldest Thames bridge between the sea and Abingdon Bridge in Oxfordshire. Richmond Bridge was Grade I listed in 1952 and it is the only Georgian bridge over the Thames in London. Its bicentenary was celebrated on 7 May 1977; the commemoration