Yes, now you wear a harness, and use a pair of lanyards with a shock absorbing system.. back then it was a simple belt and rope.. sometimes we would splice a clip onto the rope...

About twenty years ago I was working on the Williamsburg Br, on a cable rehab job, we were working from a catenary footwalk suspended beneath the main cable, and the work location was pretty low on he cable, yet still about 130-140 feet above the river.

I got hit in the jaw by an errant sledge hammer that slipped out of an Ironworkers hand. It knocked me out cold and I fell off the footwalk.... They told me when they pulled me back onto the footwalk I was out cold. I lost 3 front incisors, and two lower incisors...

I was back on the job the following week after some dental work and plastic surgery...

On edit, that day was not such agood day at work