#2 Road Trips
Taking some time out from our busy schedules, all of us are constantly in search of some getaway to attain some mental peace. Now during these getaways, technology is our best friend. We cannot spend a single moment without using our smartphones. Now in this situation, what if your smartphone gets spoiled or you lose your smartphone somehow in the middle of nowhere? The entire trip is destroyed, isn't it?
Well, if you are on a road trip in USA, you need not to worry. It's hard to imagine trekking across the US without a digital companion, but sprinkled helpfully across the country are giant 70-foot arrows to help guide you back to safety. They're from the pre-digital age of US mail delivery. To know more about them, check out the next page...
#1 The Arrow
These arrows point your way out of deserts. Because the US Postal Service started using cross-country air mail before the days of getting reliable radio in their army surplus planes, the US Postal Service installed these arrows for the flyer's safety. The line of the beacons bisects the country longitudinally from San Francisco to New York City. The Federal government installed the concrete arrows in 1924 to be positioned next to a 50-foot tall tower with a rotating gas-powered light. These arrows had a purpose.
These were supposed to be visible from 10 miles high for lost pilots. During World War II, advances in radio had rendered the beacons and arrows obsolete and the government dismantled the metal towers for the war effort. There is a small effort to preserve these beacons before they vanish completely. Here is a fully restored tower and generator shack in New Mexico. Isn't this brilliant?
