Volkswagen dangles from bridge

Engineering students at the University of British Columbia continued their pranking tradition of placing a red Volkswagen in an unusual location. This year they dangled it from Lions Gate Bridge. Canada.com notes that, "In years past, engineers have hung VWs from the Alex Fraser Bridge and San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, and have even put one atop UBC's 15-storey Buchanan Tower."

In If At All Possible, Involve A Cow, Neil Steinberg provides a fuller description of UBC's tradition of college pranks:

The University of British Columbia engineers are famous for their pranks, a yearly tradition during winter engineering week. Some of their pranks are wonderfully subtle, such as wiring the lights on the Lions Gate Bridge to blink "UBC Engineers" in Morse code. They once changed the chimes of the UBC clock to sound out the engineers' theme song. The engineers have a ritual involving the shell of a red Volkswagen beetle, which is deposited at some challenging spot around Vancouver, such as atop the 15-story Buchanan Tower, at the summit of a downtown clock tower, or suspended under a bridge (in a tour de force, one year the bug was suspended between the Granville and Burrand bridges). In 1992, it was floated on empty beer kegs to the middle of Stanley Park's Lost Lagoon, and the fountain -- which had been activated for the occasion -- was redirected so it shot out the car's sunroof.

Pranks

Posted on Wed Feb 06, 2008



Comments

If memory serves me correctly, the VW was dangled from the Lions Gate Bridge by the UBC engineers many years ago. It became the de facto standard from which all their annual pranks are measured. Surely no self-respecting UBC engineering students would copy an old trick. I'm sorry but I think this is old news.
Posted by Captain Al  on  Thu Feb 07, 2008  at  10:41 AM
It's not old news. A couple of different news agencies reported it. But it may be an old prank.
Posted by The Curator  in  San Diego  on  Thu Feb 07, 2008  at  01:04 PM
this "prank" has been done before, if they were really that clever they would come up with something new. btw they are planning the same thing same time feb 09 to kick off e-week....come up with something new losers....
Posted by JC  on  Sun Sep 21, 2008  at  02:25 PM
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