Urban Hieroglyphics

What do cyclists, and surveyors have in common?
We spend a lot of time looking down at things that other people ignore.





This a small selection of the thousands of enigmatic symbols one finds spray painted onto the streets of New York.
The blue double arrows on the right appeared all over the place just last week.
I never actually noticed any of these until I rode in last year's NYC Century, when, about a week before the ride, these started showing up.



I have come to realize that they mark the roads for everything.
I was just never looking for it.

So, a few days ago, I started seeing these as well -



I don't know about you, but I thought they were freakin' brilliant.
What do you think of when you see this blue glyph?
I think waterfall.
And what do you think of when you think of waterfalls in New York City?

Well, unless you've been living under a rock, you think of Olafur Eliasson's NYC Waterfall Public Art Installation which is due to open in less than a week.

They've been building the scaffolds in four locations around Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan for the last few months, and they've been testing the falls for the last few days.


There's a festival, a temporary park at Pier 1 next to the Brooklyn Bridge, and major goings on all along the waterfront in Dumbo.

The DOT has even put together a plan for a bike tour of the falls - which leads me back to the mystery glyphs that are appearing all over the place.
Just follow the blue arrows for a pre-planned tour of the official waterfall viewing locations.




download the map from the NYC DOT