Thanks to Edward Thrall: This Really Exists: Giant Concrete Arrows That Point Your Way Across America... picture Every so often, usually in the vast deserts of the American Southwest, a hiker or a backpacker will run across something puzzling: a large concrete arrow, as much as seventy feet in length, sitting in the middle of scrub-covered nowhere. picture What are these giant arrows? Some kind of surveying mark? Landing beacons for flying saucers? Earth’s turn signals? picture No, it's... The Transcontinental Air Mail Route. picture (map) On August 20, 1920, the United States opened its first coast-to-coast airmail delivery route, just 60 years after the Pony Express closed up shop. There were no good aviation charts in those days, so pilots had to eyeball their way across the country using landmarks. This meant that flying in bad weather was difficult, and night flying was just about impossible. The Postal Service solved the problem with the world’s first ground-based civilian navigation system: a series of lit beacons that would extend from New York to San Francisco. Every ten miles, pilots would pass a bright yellow concrete arrow. Each arrow would be surmounted by a 51-foot steel tower and lit by a million-candlepower rotating beacon. (A generator shed at the tail of each arrow powered the beacon.) Picture Now mail could get from the Atlantic to the Pacific not in a matter of weeks, but in just 30 hours or so. Even the dumbest of air mail pilots, it seems, could follow a series of bright yellow arrows straight out of a Tex Avery cartoon. By 1924, just a year after Congress funded it, the line of giant concrete markers stretched from Rock Springs, Wyoming to Cleveland, Ohio. The next summer, it reached all the way to New York, and by 1929 it spanned the continent uninterrupted, the envy of postal systems worldwide. picture Radio and radar are, of course, infinitely less cool than a concrete Yellow Brick Road from sea to shining sea, but I think we all know how this story ends. New advances in communication and navigation technology made the big arrows obsolete, and the Commerce Department decommissioned the beacons in the 1940s. The steel towers were torn down and went to the war effort. But the hundreds of arrows remain. Their yellow paint is gone, their concrete cracks a little more with every winter frost, and no one crosses their path much, except for coyotes and tumbleweeds. But they’re still out there. =================== http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcontinental_Airway_System In 1923, the United States Congress funded a sequential lighted airway along the transcontinental airmail route. The lighted airway was proposed by NACA, and deployed by the Department of Commerce. It was managed by the Bureau of Standards Aeronautical Branch. The first segment built was between Chicago and Cheyenne. It was situated in the middle of the airmail route to enable aircraft to depart from either coast in the daytime, and reach the lighted airway by nightfall. Lighted emergency airfields were also funded along the route every 15–20 miles. Construction pace was fast, and pilots wishing to become airmail pilots were first exposed to the harsh wintertime work with the crews building the first segments of the lighting system.[1] By the end of the year, the public anticipated anchored lighted airways across the Atlantic, Pacific, and to China.[2] The first nighttime airmail flights started on July 1, 1924. By eliminating the transfer of mail to rail cars at night, the coast to coast delivery time for airmail was reduced by two business days. Eventually, there were 284 beacons in service.[3] With a June 1925 deadline, the 2,665 mile lighted airway was completed from New York to San Francisco. In 1927, the lighted airway was complete between New York and Salt Lake City, Los Angeles to Las Vegas, Los Angeles to San Francisco, New York to Atlanta, and Chicago to Dallas, 4121 miles in total. In 1933, the Transcontinental Airway System totaled 1500 beacons, and 18000 miles[4] Technical[edit] These are the remnants of Transcontinental Air Mail Route Beacon 37A, which was located atop a bluff in St. George, Utah, U.S.A. With concrete arrows indicating the direction to the next beacon, a rotating light tower, and a shed that usually held a generator and fuel tanks, these beacons were once situated every 10 miles on air routes across the United States beginning around 1923. The lighted Airway Beacons were a substantial navigation aid in an era prior to the development of radio navigation. Their effectiveness was limited by visibility and weather conditions. Twenty four inch diameter rotating beacons were mounted on 53-foot (16 m) high towers, and spaced ten miles apart. The spacing was closer in the mountains, and farther apart in the plains. The beacons were five million candlepower, and rotated six times a minute. "Ford beacons" (named after Ford Car headlights) were also used, placing four separate lights at different angles.[5] Airports used green beacons and airways used red beacons. The beacons flashed identification numbers in Morse code. The sequence was "WUVHRKDBGM" prompting the training phrase "When Undertaking Very Hard Routes Keep Directions By Good Methods." to remember the sequence.[6] Engineers believed the variations of beacon height along hills and valleys would allow pilots to see beacons both above ground fog, and below cloud layers. Towers were built of numbered angle iron sections with concrete footings. A small outbuilding was needed, with a generator for power if none was available. Some building also served as weather stations. ===================== http://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2013-06-17/transcontinental-air-mail-route-maphead-ken-jennings Every so often, usually in the vast deserts of the American Southwest, a hiker or a backpacker will run across something puzzling: a ginormous concrete arrow, as much as seventy feet in length, just sitting in the middle of scrub-covered nowhere. What are these giant arrows? Some kind of surveying mark? Landing beacons for flying saucers? Earth’s turn signals? No, it's… the Transcontinental Air Mail Route. A re-creation of a 1920s map showing the route of airmail planes; the dots are intermediate stops along the course. On August 20, 1920, the United States opened its first coast-to-coast airmail delivery route, just 60 years after the Pony Express closed up shop. There were no good aviation charts in those days, so pilots had to eyeball their way across the country using landmarks. This meant that flying in bad weather was difficult, and night flying was just about impossible. The Postal Service solved the problem with the world’s first ground-based civilian navigation system: a series of lit beacons that would extend from New York to San Francisco. Every ten miles, pilots would pass a bright yellow concrete arrow. Each arrow would be surmounted by a 51-foot steel tower and lit by a million-candlepower rotating beacon. (A generator shed at the tail of each arrow powered the beacon.) Now mail could get from the Atlantic to the Pacific not in a matter of weeks, but in just 30 hours or so. Even the dumbest of air mail pilots, it seems, could follow a series of bright yellow arrows straight out of a Tex Avery cartoon. By 1924, just a year after Congress funded it, the line of giant concrete markers stretched from Rock Springs, Wyoming to Cleveland, Ohio. The next summer, it reached all the way to New York, and by 1929 it spanned the continent uninterrupted, the envy of postal systems worldwide. Radio and radar are, of course, infinitely less cool than a concrete Yellow Brick Road from sea to shining sea, but I think we all know how this story ends. New advances in communication and navigation technology made the big arrows obsolete, and the Commerce Department decommissioned the beacons in the 1940s. The steel towers were torn down and went to the war effort. But the hundreds of arrows remain. Their yellow paint is gone, their concrete cracks a little more with every winter frost, and no one crosses their path much, except for coyotes and tumbleweeds. But they’re still out there. Map by Joyce Pendola ========================= http://wchsutah.org/aviation/navigation-arrows.php Locations and history of arrows in Utah ======================== http://sometimes-interesting.com/2013/12/04/concrete-arrows-and-the-u-s-airmail-beacon-system/ Concrete Arrows and the U.S. Airmail Beacon System December 4, 2013 Sometimes Interesting Leave a comment Go to comments airmail-beacon-concrete-arrow Scattered across the United States are a network of mysterious concrete arrows. They are often found in remote locations or areas difficult to access. Some will be accompanied by a small shack, a few have a metal tower affixed to their base. Many are in good condition while others have succumbed to nature. The shape and direction of the arrows vary, but it is clear they served the same purpose. The purpose was important: helping early pilots navigate U.S. transcontinental flights at night. In a era before radar, pilots used ground-based landmarks for guidance. This solution worked for flight during the day, but grounded pilots at night. Before long, a system of beacons was established across the United States to guide airmail pilots around-the-clock. When radar and radio communications made the beacons obsolete years later, most were torn down and abandoned. * airmail-beacon-route-1924 Early Airmail Beacon Route Map circa 1924. (does not include later spur routes) * History In the mid-19th century the Wild West was largely unexplored. There was no infrastructure and very little law governing the land. Understandably, coast-to-coast message delivery was nonexistent. It was not until a gold discovery in 1848 that California became the destination for tens of thousands from the east. The trip across the country was arduous, dangerous, and could take anywhere from three to six weeks. airmail-beacon-Omaha1920sBy 1860, the Pony Express revolutionized transcontinental mail by offering delivery in about ten days. Nearly unheard-of at the time, this was faster than the more volatile southern route favored by others. Knowledgeable frontiersmen would race across the country on horseback, covering vast distances in shorter times. While the Pony Express was significant in that it proved the northern/central mail route was possible, it was inefficient compared to stagecoach lines. Higher costs and poor economies of scale would see the Pony Express fail to win the mail contract beyond its first year of operation. A year later, the threat of civil war descended upon the country and resources were diverted to the conflict. When the transcontinental telegraph line was completed in 1861, it immediately rendered the Pony Express obsolete. In the late 19th century, reliability of mail delivery improved – but not its speed. It was not until the invention of the airplane that intercontinental mail delivery witnessed its next major breakthrough. * Early Aviation & Airmail The Wright brothers made the first flight in 1903, and it wasn’t long before pilots adopted air transport for mail delivery. By 1911, Fred Wiseman had conducted an unofficial airmail flight carrying three letters from Petaluma to Santa Rosa, California. The next day, a large exhibition orchestrated by Sir Walter George Windham in British India made the first official airmail flight. Windham used the event to generate publicity and raise money for charity. His pilot, Henri Pequet, would fly just over 8 miles from Allahabad to Naini to deliver 6,500 letters. (Click thumbnails to enlarge) airmail-service-1926 airmail-boise-idaho airmail-beacon-airfield-Nebraska1920s (L to R: early airmail flight, Boise Airmail Station, Intermediate Field with tower in Nebraska) It wasn’t until three years later the range capability of mail delivery aircraft was really tested. In July of 1914, French pilot Maurice Guillaux carried Australian mail 584 miles from Melbourne to Sydney – at the time the longest such flight in the world. By 1918 the east coast of the United States had limited airmail service. Two years later, a North American transcontinental airmail route was finally established. On August 20th, 1920 – sixty years after the Pony Express – rapid delivery made a return to the U.S. airmail-vintage-ad 1926-vintage newspaper advertisement for airmail service * Beacon Tower System Aircraft of the era lacked the advanced electronics for navigation during night flights or through inclement weather. Long before the advent of radio guidance or Instrument Flight Rules (IFR), pilots were limited to visual guidance, using landmarks to chart the route. Flying at night was out of the question; bad weather and limited flight times meant delivery was limited and still spotty in frequency. The service was indeed faster, but it lacked flexibility and reliability of operations. By 1924 the Postal Service developed a solution that was effective, if not elegant. A system of ground-based navigation beacons extending from New York to San Francisco would help pilots fly across the country at night and ultimately be the world’s first such system. The early iterations of the system used approximately 1,500 airmail beacons, each constructed roughly between 3 and 5 miles apart. The beacons featured a 50-foot tower with rotating lights placed on top of concrete foundations in the shape of giant arrows measuring between 50 and 70 feet long. To increase visibility of the concrete arrows, they were painted bright yellow. airmail-beacon-design airmail-beacon-graphic airmail-beacon-example (L to R: beacon in concept, illustration, and execution) The first towers contained acetylene-gas powered lights which were fed by fuel stored in a shed at the base. At the top of the towers, a rotating beacon with 5,000 candlepower and would flash every ten seconds. In clear weather the beacon lights could be seen for 10 miles (16 km). Below the main white beacon, a secondary set of red and green lights would flash a Morse Code letter to identify the beacon to pilots. To accommodate for emergencies, intermediate landing fields were established every 25 miles along the route. The fields were constructed with rotating incandescent electric lights mounted on 50-foot towers set to sweep six times per minute. These less-common emergency field beacons were visible up to 75 miles away. The program was an immediate success and continued to expand throughout its operational life. By the end of the first year the airmail service had 18 terminal airfields, 89 emergency airfields, and more than 500 beacon lights in operation. (Click thumbnails to enlarge) airmail-envelope airmail-beacon-stamp early-US-airmail * Rapid Growth Until Obsolete airmail-beacon-62In 1926 management of the beacon system was turned over to the Department of Commerce, which continued expansion or the airmail beacon system until 1929. As technology improved, so did the towers. Later versions on spur routes were built 10 miles apart and equipped with stronger beacon lights – up to one million candlepower – making them reportedly visible up to 40 miles in clear weather. But by the 1930s, navigation and radio technology had improved to allow flight without land-based visual guidance. The Low Frequency Radio Range (LFRR) system began to replace older visual-based systems. The airmail beacon program would continue to operate full-scale until 1933, when technology advancements and the higher cost of operation during the Great Depression – finally rendered it obsolete. After the program was de-funded, various beacons would continue to operate in limited capacities into the 1940s. At that time, the Department of Commerce decommissioned and disassembled the towers for their steel, a resource in short supply and desperately needed to support the war effort. The last airway beacon was officially shut down in 1973, although the Montana Department of Transportation Aeronautics Division reportedly continues to operate around 19 updated beacons in the mountains of Western Montana. (Click thumbnails to enlarge) airmail-beacon-hudspeth2 airmail-beacon-9 airmail-concrete-arrow-6 * Today Ninety years later, most of the towers have been dismantled. Many of the sites are long gone, victims of war, infrastructure growth, and aggressive private developers. During World War II, numerous concrete arrows were destroyed as well – so as to not help enemy pilots visually navigate the country. Still, hundreds of the arrows remain. But today they lack the bright yellow paint, and the cracks in the concrete worsen with each winter freeze. Arrows on top of mountains are safe for now, but several along the highways have already been lost to redevelopment. airmail-beacon-8 * Mapping For the explorers out there, Sometimes Interesting has compiled a list with map links to locations with visible remains from the original airmail beacon system. This list is not meant to be comprehensive, but it does include many of the locations still visible today: [ listed alphabetically by location ] —– anthony-ks-concrete-arrow• A concrete arrow is all that is left of Beacon 68 just west of Albuquerque, New Mexico. • Just outside of Anthony, Kansas the remains of a concrete arrow and a beacon tower are visible near the entrance to the municipal airport (beacon number unknown, identification & photo at right courtesy S-I reader Becky McClintock). • The faint outline of a concrete arrow and generator shack is still visible in Battle Mountain, Nevada (beacon number unknown). • The remains of a concrete arrow have recently been discovered and are undergoing restoration at Bethany Airport, CT (pictured below, beacon number unknown. Courtesy S-I reader Mark Scott). **We are currently searching for more information regarding this beacon and the route it serviced at Bethany Airport. Please contact us if you have more information. Bethany-Beacon Arrow at Bethany Airport, CT (photo courtesy Mark Scott) • A concrete arrow just off Interstate 80 about 25 miles southeast of Boise, Idaho points toward the city (beacon number unknown). • In the wilderness outside of Cheyenne, Wyoming, the remote concrete arrow of Beacon 38 sits undisturbed. airmail-beacon-1930s• The faint remains of a concrete arrow can be seen in the defunct municipal airfield in Columbus, New Mexico (beacon number unknown). • The concrete arrow of Beacon 33 is still visible in Cottage Grove, Minnesota. It is even visible in street view! • The concrete arrow and generator shed at Delaware Springs Intermediate Field are still visible, deep in remote Texas. Read more about Delaware Springs Field here. • Near Effingham, South Carolina the concrete pad of Beacon J R 28, circa 1935, is reportedly still present albeit overgrown by vegetation (courtesy S-I reader Chris Little). • About 20 miles northeast of Ellensburg, WA, the foundation remains of a beacon can still be seen (beacon number unknown). • Just outside of Fernley, Nevada sits a lone beacon tower missing the concrete arrow and generator shed (beacon number unknown). • A concrete arrow is visible off Old Highway 40 near Golconda, Nevada (beacon number unknown). • The generator shed is all that’s left of Beacon 61 in the mountains of Grants, New Mexico. The tower and concrete arrow may be gone, but you can still see “61” on the roof of the shed. • The concrete arrow of Beacon 59 sits right off US-80 in Grantsville, Utah, southwest of the Great Salt Lake. airmail-beacon-hudspeth Concrete arrow barely visible at Hudspeth Intermediate Field • About 55 miles east of El Paso in the middle of nowhere, Texas, the concrete arrow of Hudspeth Intermediate Field barely pokes out of the brush (pictured above). Hudspeth was constructed in the 1930s by the Department of Commerce for emergency use by airlines, but hasn’t been used in half a century. • In Humboldt county, Nevada, the remains of an angled concrete arrow sits halfway between the Golconda and Winnemucca beacons (beacon number unknown, courtesy S-I reader Richard Woods). • The concrete arrow with twin tails from Beacon 61A can be seen just off the Lincoln Highway in Lake Point, Utah. (pictured below, courtesy BonnevilleMariner.com) labeled-arrow • Faint remnants of a concrete arrow in Locomotive Springs, Utah (beacon number unknown). • In Lovelock, Nevada, another concrete arrow can be seen (beacon number unknown). • Here’s a concrete arrow off a dirt road in Meacham, Oregon (beacon number unknown). • Visit the Aviation Heritage Museum of the Grants-Milan Airport in New Mexico to see Beacon 62 (originally located in Bonita Canyon) restored to its original 1930s appearance, complete with painted tower and corresponding generator shack. (pictured below). grants-milan-beacon The Aviation Heritage Museum of the Grants-Milan Airport in NM has restored this airway beacon (picture courtesy cibolahistory.org) • Up on Beacon Hill Road in the Moapa Valley region of Nevada, a concrete arrow is still visible (beacon number unknown). • The concrete arrow of the former MX1095 Beacon can be seen just east of the airport in Montague, California. • Here is a right-angle concrete arrow from Beacon 50 visible in Montello, Nevada. • The Newark-Heath Airport in Ohio has the well-preserved example in Beacon 2 of the Columbus-Philadelphia route, circa 1933 (courtesy S-I reader Chris Little). • A restored beacon tower is part of a protected monument in Rocky Butte Natural Area of Portland, Oregon (courtesy S-I reader Scott Kessler, beacon number unknown). • The Reidville area of South Carolina has a visible arrow from Beacon 14, originally of the Atlanta–New York line and circa 1935. The arrow is also clearly visible in Google Street view (courtesy S-I reader Chris Little). • The concrete arrow from Salt Flat Intermediate Field is barely visible in lonely Salt Flat, Texas. This emergency landing field was another product of the Department of Commerce in the 1930s. This page has more detail on the now-defunct Salt Flat Intermediate Field. airmail-beacon-37A-BloomingtonOverlook• Two miles northwest of Seama, New Mexico, the concrete arrow of Beacon 64 sits behind Flower Mountain, not far from Interstate 40. • A concrete arrow sits in good condition at Shelbyville Municipal Airport about 25 miles southeast of Indianapolis in Indiana (beacon number unknown). • Another concrete arrow – this one from Beacon 37B – can be seen on the south edge of the Shinob Kibe Mesa in Utah. • The concrete arrow from Beacon 37A is visible from the Bloomington Overlook location in St. George, Utah. (photo at right) • A concrete arrow is all that’s left of Beacon 37C at the Quail Creek Reservoir in Utah between Hurricane and St. George. • A restored tower is on display in Indian Mounds Park of St. Paul, Minnesota. This 1929 example has recently been re-painted to its original black & yellow livery. (courtesy S-I reader Gerald Kackman, detailed information about this beacon can be found here) • The faint outline of a concrete arrow is still visible just off German Road in Steward, Illinois (courtesy S-I reader Jeremy Nesemeier, beacon number unknown). • The concrete arrow by Strevell Road near the Idaho/Utah border is clearly visible along with the foundations of other facilities, now gone (beacon number unknown). Beacon 45a• Beacon 14A is still overlooking US-80 in the Tahoe National Forest in California. The concrete arrow is gone, but the tower remains. A newer building has replaced the generator shed next to the tower. • Just outside the Toiyabe National Forest in Reno, a concrete arrow is barely visible and in poor condition (beacon number unknown). • Between Trinidad, Colorado and Raton, New Mexico, a complete specimen sits in relatively good condition. El Paso Puebla Airway Beacon 45 (photo above right). (addition & photo courtesy S-I reader Marc @ Skymachines.com) • Little other than the tower’s foundation of Beacon 5 is still visible in Vacaville, California. airmail-beacon-pat-elliott• A two-arrow, two-tail beacon is vandalized, but visible in Walnut Creek, California. (courtesy S-I reader Bob Simmons, beacon number unknown) • The well-preserved tower of airway Beacon 32 is still in use at Winnemucca Municipal Airport in northern Nevada. You can even see this pristine example in street view. (No concrete arrow or generator shed) • A modern antenna system has been built on top of an old concrete arrow in Wolf Creek, Oregon. (tip & photo at right courtesy S-I reader Pat Elliott, beacon number unknown) • In Woods Cross, Utah, there is a concrete arrow northeast of the Salt Lake City Airport (beacon number unknown). * air-travel-1929-original Air Traveler’s Map, 1929 “Illustrated Map of the Route of Transcontinental Air Transport,” Rand McNally, 1929. Courtesy David Rumsey Map Collection. Click thumbnail to view full-size (warning: large file) * Click here to see the 1945 Civil Aeronautics Administration Air Marking Guide (warning: 45-page pdf). Big thanks to Steve Owen from cibolahistory.org for sharing this with us! * Do you know of another airway beacon or concrete arrow not listed here but still visible? Contact us with the coordinates and we’ll update the list! airway_beacons_map_clip ====================== http://www.dreamsmithphotos.com/arrow/arrows.html Arrow locations across the U.S. ================== http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_phcaAMPZaE Newscast video ================ http://www.antiqueairfield.com/features/us_airmail.html history ===================== http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airmail Although homing pigeons had long been used to send messages (an activity known as pigeon mail), the first mail to be carried by an air vehicle was on January 7, 1785, on a hot air balloon flight from Dover to France near Calais. It was flown by Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries. The letter was written by an American Loyalist William Franklin to his son William Temple Franklin who was serving in a diplomatic role in Paris with his grandfather Benjamin Franklin.[1] During the first aerial flight in North America by balloon on January 9, 1793, from Philadelphia to Deptford, New Jersey, Jean-Pierre Blanchard carried a personal letter from George Washington to be delivered to the owner of whatever property Blanchard happened to land on, making the flight the first delivery of air mail in the United States. The first official air mail delivery in the United States took place on August 17, 1859, when John Wise piloted a balloon starting in Lafayette, Indiana, with a destination of New York. Weather issues forced him to land in Crawfordsville, Indiana, and the mail reached its final destination via train. In 1959, the U.S. Postal Service issued a 7 cent stamp commemorating the event. The first official American airmail delivery was made on September 23, 1911 by pilot Earle Ovington under the authority of the United States Post Office Department Air mail within the United States was effectively ended as a distinct service on October 10, 1975, when all domestic intercity First Class mails began to be transported by air whenever practical and/or expeditious at the normal First Class rate. Domestic Air Mail as a separate class of service (and its rate structure) was formally eliminated by the successor to the Post Office Department, the United States Postal Service (USPS) on May 1, 1977.[16] In June 2006, the United States Postal Service formally trademarked Air Mail (two words with capital first letters) along with Pony Express.[17] On May 14, 2007, Air Mail was incorporated into the classification First Class Mail International.[18][19]