Giant Concrete Arrows Across the American Landscape | Hacker News Reader

Giant Concrete Arrows Across the American Landscape

core77.com

228 pointstyskis46 comments

A Google Maps collection of these.

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?source=gplus-ogsb&ie=UTF8&oe...

Any particular reason most of the locations on that map are in the West?

> since navigation charts of the day were fugazi...

OT but Fugazi is the name of one of my favorite bands. In interviews I had read that the word meant "a fucked up situation" but until now I had never seen it actually used that way. Interesting choice of words, interesting article too!

I also enjoy some Fugazi. I never knew what the name meant. After seeing it used in this article I had to look it up.

I heard it used that way from growing up on Military posts. It just means any fucked up situation. I'm not sure it's known, but I was told it was made popular by troops in Vietnam. The most interesting theory I've seen is that it may derive from fougasse (“land mine”). All of that said, it makes one of the best band names ever.

My understanding is that it is an acronym.

Fucked Up, Got Ambushed, Zipped In.

My understanding is that acronym stories like that are almost always apocryphal.

Yes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backronym

We had a tower with light in my town. We're right on the Pacific coast to the tower was inland and behind a hill so it couldn't be mistaken for a lighthouse by passing ships.

The tower and shed are still there and are used for communication antennas.

> behind a hill so it couldn't be mistaken for a lighthouse by passing ships.

I wonder why they didn't just put it on ship maps as an additional lighthouse.

Lighthouses are regularly used for navigation, so they need to have almost guaranteed up-time. Don't think that would always be the case for these particular kinds of lights.

All of the navigation beacons in Montana are still functioning.

http://mthistoryrevealed.blogspot.com/2013/03/guiding-lights...

See also: Satellite imaging test patterns[1]

[1] http://www.clui.org/newsletter/winter-2013/photo-calibration...

The link at the end to concrete recycling is fascinating - having demolished 100 ton of concrete and steel in the back yard in the last year, it sounds great to have a largely mess free system.

Unfortunately, it's a student design concept, not an actual product. (This means there are likely to be major functional flaws in the design, as feasibility is generally not a consideration in these design competitions.)

I wonder what semi permanent structures we are building now that future generations will be looking at in 80+ years and wondering about our archaic technology.

The waste water storage tanks at the Fukushima nuclear plant will probably still be around and contaminated 80 years from now. Although I suspect that isn't exactly what you had in mind.

Just fill them with grain and have the birds eat it all. Problem gone.

If the problem was "How can I spread radiation throughout the environment?"

Release a large number of cats to catch and eat the birds. Solved once and for all. ONCE AND FOR ALL.

Possibly a lot of traffic structures, since vehicles and transportation may be largely computer-controlled by then, which would re-shape any related infrastructure that has "just made sense" to us in recent history

Gas stations?

This is so cool. I'm taking my kids on a road trip around the west soon.

Does anyone know of other cool, historical things like this we could hunt for?

Search the Twelve Mile Circle blog: http://www.howderfamily.com/blog/ . He covers many cool geo-odities.

EBR-1 was really cool

Is there any plausible reason such arrows would be broken up on purpose? In my mind, I would want more things like this to exist; large physical failsafe markers seem like a great idea.

These arrows, probably not so much, as they are pretty much all in the middle of nowhere. However, general concrete recycling is useful because breaking up existing, unused concrete for works projects tends to be cheaper than, and is more environmentally friendly than, quarrying.

Ah, I did not know that. Thanks!

I don't get it. Doesn't concrete crack and break in a messy way? How could it be re-used?

> How could it be re-used?

To somewhat over-simplify, concrete is made from three things: Cement, large aggregate (big rocks), and small aggregate (little rocks). Broken up concrete works pretty well as large aggregate.

Awesome, thanks!

But if the arrows only point east to west, how did the pilots make the return trip?

;)

This one's pointing East... ? https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?source=gplus-ogsb&ie=UTF8&oe...

Even modern pilots (without GPS) use rivers and highways. Why couldn't 1920s pilots use railroads?

But planes and pilots can take short cuts over mountains and terrain that railroads have to go around. Navigating these shorter routes might have been harder but would definitely be worth it in fuel and time savings

Also night time and all the roads looking the same after a while.

The arrows and beacons were designed for night usage, where it's a lot harder to see railroad tracks. The arrows themselves seem to be much more the supplemental part of the system, to give a general idea where the next beacon's going to be.

Modern joke "What do you mean by IFR" it means "I follow Roads"

With the extra joke being that following roads is actually VFR and that you most likely couldn't follow roads in IFR.

If that's the extra joke... What's the primary joke?

"Haha IFR is a fancy-sounding term but you really mean you just find a road and follow it to your destination as though you were in a car"

I've heard it as "Vee Follow Roads" since it's VFR where you're more likely to use ground features

It was often hard to tell these features apart from up in the air. There are many instances of pilots losing races because they followed the wrong rail line. For a really in-depth history of pre-electronic navigation, check out "Most Probable Position" by Wright, http://www.amazon.com/Most-Probable-Position-History-Navigat...

If we had the government make concrete arrows like that today, they would be cracked into rubble in three years because the contractor cut as many corners as they could. (Sorry, My cynical, the past was so much better moment for today)

Yeah! The g'ubment can't build anything right!

Uses GPS system to get home

So they'd be round?

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