Lock, stock and bagel Lock, stock and bagel

‘No locks, yes lox’ plea makes Brooklyn Bridge more Jewish

New York Department of Transportation uses humor to discourage leaving love symbols that can damage structure

By Gabe Friedman 23 November 2016, 5:31 pm

Edit

A real new New York City Department of Transportation sign. (Twitter via JTA)

NEW YORK (JTA) — New York City’s Department of Transportation does not want you leaving locks on the Brooklyn Bridge. But eating a big bagel with lox and cream cheese? That is strongly encouraged.

A sign that popped up on the heavily trafficked bridge in October, complete with a bagel image, reads “NO LOCKS YES LOX.”

As explained by Mic.com website, the sign is meant to discourage people from leaving so-called “love locks” on the bridge as a symbol of affection. The practice is also common in European cities like Paris and Rome, but it can weigh down bridges and cause damage. Mic reports that locks on the Brooklyn Bridge caused a wire holding to snap on September 8, leading to hours of repairs and traffic delays. Violators can be fined.

The “yes lox” sign features a photo of an everything bagel from Leo’s Bagels in the Financial District, near the Department of Transportation’s offices.

For Rebecca Dana, a mostly secular Jewish writer, the distance between Brooklyn's Hasidim and Manhattan's media elite was both a bridge and a world apart. (Photo credit: CC BY/Buggolo via Flickr.com) — New York’s iconic Brooklyn Bridge (CC BY-Buggolo via Flickr.com)

If an official city sign with a bagel on it seems unexpected to you, you aren’t alone — sign maker John Jurgeleit told Mic that even he was surprised the Department of Transportation ate the idea up.

“We did regulatory signs and then [city officials] wanted something a little more whimsical,” said Jurgeleit, who reportedly makes between 85,000 and 100,000 signs for the city each year. “As a goof, I came up with this and sent it over and our [Transportation Department] commissioner, who has a great sense of humor and a love of signs also, she loved it — she went with it … to my surprise.”

Love locks on Brooklyn Bridge: the romance of the city at dawn. https://t.co/cXSsRMBpIg pic.twitter.com/bm6w9nXl37

— Tea Break Project (@teabreakproject) October 10, 2016

Less surprisingly, the sign has been a hit on social media.

But city officials should be careful what they wish for — there’s probably enough lox in Brooklyn to weigh down a bridge.

This isn’t the first time that officials showed a little chutzpah in picking Brooklyn street signs. In 2000, Borough President Marty Markowitz had the Department of Transportation install a sign on the outbound Williamsburg Bridge reading “Leaving Brooklyn. Oy Vey!”