Thames Barrier

The Thames Barrier
Like most cities in the world, London is built by the water ; for century the mighty Thames provided easy access to the sea, a gateway to the world richest and the most powerfull empire. Today as sea level rises the river harbors the potential for the city destruction.
Storm surge from the North Sea, high tides and exceptional fluvial flow are the three factors that may lead to a catastrophe. With no barrier, at high tides, the sea would normally flow up the estuary and into London, pushing the river water back. During the last winter with the extra rainfall, this could worsen the flooding.
In the past, far before the Thames Barrier was built London has been hit by such a catastrophe. In 1928, 14 people drowned between the City and Southwark with street filled with water up to 4ft deep. The 1953 more recent North Sea flood in the east prompted calls for a mechanism to protect the English capital . The construction on the Thames Barrier began in 1974 and in 1992 the Queen opened what was regarded as the jewel in a flood defense crown, the Thames Barrier. It is in itself an engeneering marvel, one of the biggest in the world ( after Oosterscheldekering in the Netherlands), when high tides threatens to drown the capital, ten steel gates as tall as a five story building are drawn up .
Until now the Thames Barrier proved to be efficient, but how long will it last ? Originally barrier closures were expected once every two to three years, today it closes five or six times every year ! And this year it has closed 28 times since December ! With projected sea levels rises and sea surges, the status quo is not an option . The operator of the Thames Barrier , the Environment Agency is already thinking about the future of this flood defences which are already getting older .
Please feel free to point out big mistakes in my messages . Thanks to your remarks, I have already improved my level.

blow the URL of the picture I failed to add

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/02/14/article-2559399-1B7B961A00000578-584_964x623.jpg

Hi Jean-Pierre,

Thanks for the words on this important subject.
Here's the photo

Jean-Pierre,

Here is what I did (the photo was somewhere on the Internet - you had its web address):


- set the cursor to the location where you want your photo
- click icon "Insérer une image"
- fill in the URL area
- click the button "Insérer"
- done

NB: This action simply adds the tags IMG and /IMG on both sides of the web address

Code:

[img]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/02/14/article-2559399-1B7B961A00000578-584_964x623.jpg[/img]

Hi Jean-Pierre,

A few remarks (little ones, congrats):

> for century
Do you ean "for centuries"?
> powerfull
The spelling is "powerful"
> The construction on the Thames Barrier began in 1974
The construction of the Thames?
> "in a flood defense" / "the future of this flood defences"
"Defence" is British / "Defense" is American.
> "five story building" / "storey"
The spelling "story" is American (Brits prefer "storey")


NB:
- "Thames" is one of these rare words in which the "th" is pronounced "t" and this way, it looks like our French "Tamise" (some régions of the UK pronounce many "th"s as "t"s)
- "By" has got several meanings: in addition to the traditional ones (par, à côté de), I learned in 2000 that "by" also meant before.
- idioms:
--- "by and by" = soon
--- "by the by=by the bye" = by the way
--- "that's by the by" = that's not important

Hi Murielle, Hi Gerard
Thank you for reminding me about languagetool  (Gerard pointed it out to me once already), I tried it again and I must admit Gerard is smarter because LanguageTool doesn't make the difference between English and American whereas Gerard does !   
It only frowns about (status) and (building) !!!
Thank for the corrections and useful remarks such as the difficult prononciation of Thames (*tems).
I will try again to insert a picture
If it doesn't work, perhaps it can be because I write this from a MacBook !

Hi Jean-Pierre,

> Thank for the corrections and useful remarks
You can say "thank you" or "thanks" (or thank ya, or TY, or TX)

> such as the difficult prononciation of Thames (*tems).
The correct spelling is "pronunciation" (but "to pronounce).
The pronunciation is not that difficult, is it? It's just unusual.
In some regions, they also pronounce "taUznd instead of thousand ("TaUznd).


> I will try again to insert a picture
> If it doesn't work, perhaps it can be because I write this from a MacBook !
No, MacBook is not the reason.

Code:

[img]http://www.google.fr/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2F1%2F19%2FThames_Barrier%2C_London%2C_England_-_Feb_2010.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FThames_Barrier&h=2040&w=8743&tbnid=LSoutQBgL9wtIM%3A&zoom=1&q=Thames%20Barrier&docid=DqbQ2aNiz0KzXM&ei=rLU-U6-4IKTt0gXr8ICwBA&tbm=isch&client=badoo&iact=rc&dur=3792&page=1&start=0&ndsp=20&ved=0CF4QrQMwAg[/img]

The URL is too complicated...
Here's a shorter one:

Code:

[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5f/Thames_Barrier_London.jpg/800px-Thames_Barrier_London.jpg[/img]

thank you for these last remarks Gerard.