A trip down memory lane for us millenials.
I’m terrified of the ocean. It doesn’t help that I don’t know how to swim but drowning only holds silver medal in my Fear Olympics. If anything, being able to swim further and further out into the water would only exacerbate my anxiety about the unknown that lurks below. More than 80% of the ocean remains undiscovered. I had the same scary thought when I visited Paris 2 years ago. The catacombs? Tiny medieval doors in the facades of the streets that lead to who knows where?? For you Bay Area locals, let me add one more to the nail-biting list of “what tf am I standing on top of?”
An illustration in 1914 "Metal Building Materials" catalog
As you’ve walked through downtown San Francisco, have you ever stopped and noticed the grid of purple squares under your feet? As a kid who would read books while walking (I know, dangerous, but don’t worry, these days I only ever look at my phone while walking), I definitely noticed them but never considered to look them up. I just accepted it, much like I accepted the speckled aesthetic of chewed up gum that littered the concrete (both of which we don’t see as much anymore and I sort of kind of miss.) Well, thanks to KQED, we finally know the answer to the question we didn’t even know we had.
If you have a thing for people walking all over you, definitely check out the basement.
Vault lights, pavement lights, floor lights, sidewalk prisms. Tomayto, tomahto. You can actually find them all over the world and depending on where you are, it’ll have a different name and purpose. In San Francisco, the glass prisms were mostly used to light up building basements that extend under the sidewalk. More interestingly, our neighbor to the North, Sacramento, is prone to flooding, so in 1862 parts of the city were raised up to 14 feet and in areas where buildings weren’t lifted, they instead built on top of of the first floor, essentially making it an underground level (Sacramento Underground City is a thing and you can get a walking tour of the abandoned storefront through their History Museum). In other parts of the country, the jewels were used to illuminate the lower platforms of major train stations. Unless dyed to mimic the older ones, if you ever see purple sidewalk lights, it’s your lucky day because the glass only ever turns purple with age, which means you can bet you’re standing somewhere pretty old and historic.
Unfortunately, my hunch was right, and these peculiar attractions have disappeared slowly over the years from our urban landscape. The City of San Francisco considers the lights as having little historic value and a hazard for pedestrians so they’ve removed most of them. I happened on one the other day in the Marina District but purple they were not, and the shattering of the glass makes me think it’s a matter of time before the city replaces it with the hideous red tiles surrounding it. So next time you’re in North Beach, make sure to support one of our last independent bookstores, perfectly named City Lights Books, because it may also be the last place you’ll be able to witness the majestic purple gems light up the city at night.
The passenger concourse at the original Pennsylvania Station.
Thanks to these FB comments, I was able to find more San Franciscan examples.
Indeed, the entrance of Woey Loy Goey leads to below the sidewalk. Couldn’t find pics of the bathroom.
Also no pics of Spec’s bathroom. But was on my list of places to visit anyway.
It’s funny to think people used to work in the basement.