I’m not exactly in an urban area here in the delightful city of Nashua, New Hampshire, an old mill town about 45 miles north of Boston, Massachusetts. Though we do have one unique thing that apparently no other city has in the world. That would be triangular sewer covers.
They were made locally starting in 1919, and the foundry that made them is still in business. They are on their way out though, as national standards call for a specific diameter for sewer covers. These triangular ones are just a bit too small to fit in with the rules, so no new triangular covers will be made. As the city repaves streets they are slowly being replaced by the circular covers that every other city has.
Why do sewer covers need to be circular ? That’s because once they are removed, they won’t fall back into the sewer if they are put back in the wrong way. These triangular covers don’t fall in though. They were made with tapered sides, so the top is larger than the bottom. They also don’t rattle around when a large truck rolls over them, like loose circular ones do.
The Nashua covers even get a mention in a Wikipedia article. Maybe I should write a Wikipedia article about the Mystery Rotary in Nashua.
A few of them are auctioned off by the city every year as they are replaced with the new circular ones. I wonder what people do with them? Coffee tables?
Nice work making the challenge work for you! I carried my camera around in the truck all week thinking I’d take it out when I got to town and never did now looking at yours and others I’m feeling sad I missed out and excited for the next challenge! Triangle sewer covers, who knew?!
Thanks !
I’ve had to stretch the rules on a lot of these photo challenges, I’m not that technical of a photographer, and I don’t get out much!
It was either this one or the one of the Lego ‘skyscraper’!
They are pretty cool… and a coffee table/side table would be a great use for it.
I wasn’t going to participate in this challenge, since this is really not much of an urban area, but at least we’re known for something here! There’s even a photo of one of the covers on a Wikipedia page!