View allAll Photos Tagged SignalLight
boston, massachusetts
september 1959
thompson square, charlestown
part of an archival project, featuring the photographs of nick dewolf
© the Nick DeWolf Foundation
Image-use requests are welcome via flickrmail or nickdewolfphotoarchive [at] gmail [dot] com
The first traffic lights in continental Europe were erected at Potsdamer Platz in 1924.
It was the attempt to control the sheer volume of traffic passing through.
The traffic lights ( from Siemens ) were mounted on a five-sided 8m high tower designed by Jean Kramer, shipped over from the United States, and actually modelled on a similar one erected on Fifth Avenue in New York in 1922.
A solitary policeman sat in a small cabin at the top of the tower and switched the lights around manually.
Now, these times are gone, and the traffic lights now get switched automatically by a computer-system....
Some call it wild, colorful, and full of surprises, while others find it a little too hectic and gruff. Berlin is intriguing because it is so versatile and so multi-faceted. Differences are more extreme, conflicts more tangible, and problems larger than they are elsewhere. Yet even Berlin’s contradictions are part of its appeal.