#DrummondPuddleWatch: Thousands tune in to watch a puddle live on Periscope

Sometimes all it takes is the color of a dress or a dog wearing pants to entertain the Internet. Other times, a puddle will do.

Thousands of people around the world tuned in to a live video stream of a puddle that was partially blocking a bridge walkway in Drummond Central, Newcastle, England, on Wednesday, as pedestrians braved the pool of standing water to the delight of those watching live on Periscope.

Soon, local residents got in on the fun, descending upon the puddle with surfboards and rafts. Someone even placed a "Caution: Wet Floor" sign in the middle.

On Twitter, the hashtag #DrummondPuddleWatch began trending worldwide as news of the soggy saga spread.

By the end of the six-hour stream, there were more than 500,000 live viewers watching the puddle, according to Periscope data.

The footage was streamed by Drummond Central, a marketing company whose offices overlook the puddle.

Beth Hazon, the firm's managing director, told the BBC that staffers have watched pedestrians struggle to cross the water for weeks.

"It's crazy, we watch it every single day," Hazon said. "There's been so much rain in the past month that we've seen people try and navigate their way across the puddle as to quite a busy stretch."

Richard Rippon, the staffer whose idea it was to put the puddle on Periscope, said he's been impressed by the ingenuity of the puddle-hoppers.

"There's a kind of British resilience to it," Rippon said. "No one has turned back yet."