During the mid-1800s people and materials were carried across the Avon Gorge in a basket suspended on a cable during construction of Clifton Suspension Bridge. This iron bar was part of the cable. In 1841 passengers had a lucky escape when the rope which pulled the basket along cable snapped and it fell back to its centre suspended above the Avon Gorge. Considerable alarm was felt by the spectators on the shore, by the passengers in a steam-packet passing beneath at the time, and more particularly by those in the basket, who however, managed to escape without any injury.