Carved into the granite of a bridge pier on the Clyde is Glasgow's own little version of the Rosetta Stone: a message, rather curiously, written in both English and Ancient Greek.
Built in 1879 for the newly-opened Central Station, the Caledonian Railway Bridge carried countless trains over the Clyde over the course of its working life, before being replaced by a second bridge in the 1900s.
Now, all that remains of the Victorian crossing, which was mostly demolished in 1967, are a series of stone pillars linked by cast-iron arches, and, if you look closely at a couple of the pillars you'll notice something peculiar.
Inscribed into the east faces of the former bridge's two easternmost pillars are messages written in both English and Ancient Greek.
The English section reads: "All Greatness Stands Firm in the Storm", while the Greek part, which will be familiar to those who have read Plato's Republic, translates loosely as: "All great things are perilous, and it is true, as the proverb says, that beautiful things are hard to attain".
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Given that the bridge definitely wasn't built by the hand of Zeus, this is all slightly odd - but there is an explanation.
According to Canmore and Historic Environment Scotland, the inscriptions were the work of renowned artist Ian Hamilton Finlay, who was commissioned to turn the bridge remnants into works of art during Glasgow's stint as European City of Culture in 1990.
Edinburgh-born Hamilton Finlay, who studied at the Glasgow School of Art and is well-known for creating carved poems and sculptures, selected the thought-provoking Plato quote to appear on the piers.
The Glasgow oddity was recently the subject of a discussion on the Lost Glasgow group on Facebook, with members debating over why the messages had been carved and who was behind it.
Neil Freel wrote: "I was involved with this job back in the 80s/90s. We had use a work boat for general access to install the scaffolding and carve the lettering. All a bit unusual at the time."
Ernie Fleming said: "Constantly amazed at the things around us that we miss, and the fantastic people around us with amazing knowledge. Delightful."
Chas Callaghan joked: "My Greek isn't great but I think it says: 'no ball games'."
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