The White House says it is making progress on the charging network the country needs to enable long road trips in electric cars.
27.12.2023 - 15:41 / thepointsguy.com
Though perhaps not as famous or enigmatic as the Nazca lines in southern Peru, the Kazakhstan Steppe geoglyphs or California's Blythe Intaglios, the U.S. has some interesting 20th-century manmade creations meant to be seen from above. They played a key role in flight long before the days of modern navigational software and technology.
What are these mysterious monuments of which I speak? The answer is ... pointed — as in the tip of an arrow, pointed.
In fact, they are 50- to 70-foot-long concrete navigational arrows that originally helped guide the U.S. Postal Service as it entered into the field of airmail delivery.
Almost 100 years ago, about 1,500 of these arrows were constructed to serve as navigational "signs" to be seen from the sky as the Postal Service and Commerce Department looked to expedite the movement of mail in a new era of flight.
These relics of the past that once pushed us toward the future are still out there — or rather, under 200 of them are in varying states of existence. However, if my conversations and observations are even remotely accurate, even the most seasoned travelers and aviation enthusiasts may not know of their existence. Of the few people who do know about them, even fewer have seen one.
The remaining arrows are in locales ranging from off-the-beaten-path spots to areas just off the busiest of highways (but perhaps hidden under a canopy of underbrush and trees or even on an open mountaintop).
We first learned of these arrows by happenstance a few years ago and have since made it a mission to take the next opportunity to see it for ourselves. If, like us, you are curious and always looking for new adventures, here's what we learned.
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In the early days of airmail in the U.S., primarily using World War I aircraft and pilots, airmail was still not a particularly "express" journey even though it was a big step forward. At the time, such flying was restricted to the daylight hours, and the mail would be transported by train during the night.
This system obviously hindered overall progress and speed. So, the federal government developed a plan to provide a connect-the-lighted-dots pathway from coast to coast.
A series of 51-foot metal towers with beacons were constructed and placed approximately 10 miles apart. At the base of each beacon, a 50- to 70-foot concrete arrow was built and painted a bright chrome yellow to enhance visibility.
The arrows were laid out and aimed to direct the pilot to the next navigational complex. The next complex would then guide them to the next complex, and so on, until they reached their destination.
The rotating beacons eventually offered lights of 2 million
The White House says it is making progress on the charging network the country needs to enable long road trips in electric cars.
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