Pioneering Merit Badge, requirement #7 (build a scale model of a signal tower or a monkey bridge)

I just got back from BSA National Camp School -- I was in an Outdoor Skills Director section. One of the things I did this past week, in my spare time, was requirement #7 for the Pioneering merit badge (to build a scale model of a signal tower or monkey bridge). I was challenged to build more than a monkey bridge, so I built a tower and added a sloping monkey bridge on the back side. It's built in a 1"-1' scale, one inch to 1 foot scale.

Technically, I built a signal tower and added more onto it. Why build both? Well, a tower is larger, far more complex -- it requires a lot more work. Even so, I haven't seen Scouts lining up to climb up and down on a tower unless they're playing some sort of game with it. I've seen Scouts queuing up for a monkey bridge several times, so I wanted to build something that was both technically complex and would also draw attention and be something that Scouts would really want to climb up and cross.

It has 43 lashings -- 30 square lashings, 1 sheer lashing, 10 diagonal lashings, 2 platform lashings, and 39 separate knots for the hand/foot and anchor ropes. I used just under 300 inches of twine, roughly 24 1/2 feet of twine (which would be just under 300 feet of rope in real life), and about 15 feet of dowels (which would be about 180 feet in real life).

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• Boy Scouts
• Boy Scouts of America
• merit badge
• Pioneering
• rope
• ropes
• knot
• knots
• monkey bridge
• signal tower
• tower
• requirement #7