27 Astonishing Things You Didn't Know About London
14. There's US Soil Under The Statue Of George Washington In Trafalgar Square
In 1921, the Commonwealth of Virginia gave a bronze statue of George Washington to the people of Great Britain. This sounds like a wonderful gesture, right? But there was a problem. The US President had proclaimed that he would "never again step foot on English soil". And Trafalgar Square, where the City of London wanted to put the statue, is most certainly on British soil. The City of London and the people back in Virginia came up with an ingenious solution - they put some genuine US soil under the statue, allowing the President's effigy to stand on untainted American dirt. Problem solved!
Mike has lived in the UK, Japan and the USA. Currently, he is based in Iowa with his wife and 2 young children. After working for many years as a writer and editor for a large corporation, he is now a freelancer. He has been fortunate enough to contribute to many books on Doctor Who over the last 20 years and is now concentrating on original sci-fi & fantasy short stories, with recent sales including Flame Tree, Uffda, and The Martian Wave. Also, look for his contribution on Blake's 7 to "You and Who Else", a charity anthology to be released later this year.
You can find him on Tumblr at https://www.tumblr.com/blog/culttvmike
