14 July 2009

Pittsburgh? Or Pittsburg? Or Pitetsbkrrh? Or...


Since March 1929, the 33 story Grant building in downtown Pittsburgh has been home to a huge flashing beacon, using Morse code to spell the word "Pittsburgh". The beacon was installed so aviators could avoid the 500 foot structure, even though commercial air travel was not well established upon completion of the tower.

When Tom Stepleton was waiting for the local Fourth of July fireworks show to begin, he started decoding the Morse code message, but to his amazement, he noticed the flashing blink of the letter "K". Since there is no K in Pittsburgh, he decoded the rest of the message, and discovered that the landmark was actually spelling "Pitetsbkrrh".
More at the link, including this update: Now the building is flashing "TPEBTSAURGH"

1 comment:

  1. BarbwireJuly 14, 2009 at 11:51 PM

    Well, the local pronunciation is "Picksburgh". Has the same beacon been flashing since its inception? How often is it checked? Who's responsible for it?

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