You may think this sign means ‘wadi crossing’. No, no, no - according to the ROP website (under warning signs), this is in fact, an ‘Irish crossing’.A bit of rummaging on the Internet suggests this may be the correct engineering term, but it is impossible to find information on its rather dubious etymology. Regardless, we should all adopt this alternative terminology, if nothing else to watch the confused faces of non-native English speakers.
1 comment:
Irish Bridge or Irish crossing is an accepted civil engineering term, as a boy I always knew them as 'fords' (Not the car). I suspect it was a derogatory nic-name that became popular in the construction industry, and as such it stuck.
Post a Comment