‘No Locks, Yes Lox’ Sign Makes Brooklyn Bridge Even More Jewish

This is a real new New York City Department of Transportation sign. Image by Twitter
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 new 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, 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 Sept. 8, leading to hours of repairs and traffic delays. Violators can be fined.
Related
The “yes lox” sign features a photo of an everything bagel from Leo’s Bagels in the Financial District, near the DOT’s offices.
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 DOT 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.”
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 DOT install a sign on the outbound Williamsburg Bridge reading “Leaving Brooklyn. Oy Vey!”
Related
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
- 2
News School Israel trip turns ‘terrifying’ for LA students attacked by Israeli teens
- 3
Culture Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
- 4
Music After decades of waiting, we’re finally getting a Bob Dylan-Barbra Streisand duet
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward What the Israeli occupation of Gaza would mean for Israelis and Palestinians
-
Yiddish אויסשטעלונג אין אונגערן — רמזים פֿון הילצערנער שיל פֿון 18טן יאָרהונדערטExhibit in Hungary displays remnants of 18th century wooden synagogue
אינעם 18טן יאָרהונדערט איז די קהילה אין נאַזנאַ געווען די צווייט גרעסטע אין גאַנץ טראַנסילוואַניע.
-
News Is the crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism the new Red Scare?
-
Opinion Trump’s cuts are a war on Jewish literature, thought and history itself
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.