Went down the Thames from Putney yesterday and noticed that there was a bale of straw hanging from a bridge that was being worked on ,one of our party thoght it was some old custom about working on bridges . Anyone know the real story .
A good trip except for someone jumping off London Bridge and not being found which put a bit of a dampner on the afternoon .Lots of police fire RNLI activity .
Goes back to days before lifejackets. Man working on bridge, man slips, falls in water, his mate(hopefully) cuts rope, down goes straw, drowning man hangs on to bale, saved.
I always thought it meant that the arch was closed to navigation?
Every day's a school day!
From the PLA web site: An inverted triangle of three red discs or three red lights hanging from the arch of a bridge mean that the arch is closed to navigation. A bundle of straw or a white light hanging from the arch of a bridge indicates that the arch has restricted headroom.
From the PLA web site: An inverted triangle of three red discs or three red lights hanging from the arch of a bridge mean that the arch is closed to navigation. A bundle of straw or a white light hanging from the arch of a bridge indicates that the arch has restricted headroom.
John
Cheers John,
When I was a teenager passing along the London Thames in my parents boat we always used to avoid the arches with bales.
I remember the bit about the inverted triangle now that you've jogged my memory.
War Shot
