I was walking the other day and came across part of a
fragment of a stone circle embedded in the street.
That was odd, but I didn’t think much of it until a little
while later I happened to come across a full circle, also laid perfectly in the street, made
entirely of bricks.
Once is odd, but twice makes me pay attention.
When it happened a THIRD time, I started wondering why the
city would be making such interesting marks on the pavement. Is this the rise of a new Stonehenge
culture? Could it be the mason’s version
of crop circles? Maybe they're secret ICBM missile silos!
Today’s challenge: What are these circles? Why and when were they made? How many more can I expect to find? Finally, in what city do these circles appear?
Search on!
Less than one (1) minute. Typing "brick circles" on Google even brought up "San Francisco", whereupon I learned that those circles are remnants of water cisterns.
ReplyDeleteStarted typing Brick Circles and Google Autocomplete gave my in San Fransisco. Second article down in SERP http://allcitysf.com/2011/03/what-are-those-brick-circles-in-sf-streets/.
ReplyDeleteThey mark cisterns of pressurized water used to supplement SFFD. There are 172 of them throughout the city and they hold 11 million gallons of water. They were built in 1860.
Less than 30 seconds.
They mark water reservoirs as last resorts for fire fighters should pipelines fail. They were made in late 19ths. There are 177 of then in the city of San Francisco
ReplyDelete[brick circle asphalt]
ReplyDeleteFirst link is to an article about 177 intersections in San Francisco which have cisterns to hold water. They were built in the late 19th and early 20th century, with plans to build 16 more in newer sections of the city.
It took under 1 minute.
They are part of the San Francisco Auxiliary Water Supply System (AWSS). They are water cisterns and 175 were built after the Great Earthquake of 1906. 3 minutes, search for 'street circles "san francisco"'. From the last picture it was obviously San Francisco.
ReplyDeleteMy initial search was for [street brick circle], which google chrome autocompleted to [brick circles street san francisco]. I used that search, went into the image results and saw that yes, these were the same sort of large brick circles.
ReplyDeleteIt turns out that they're emergency water cisterns, meant to be used to put out fires in case of disaster. Some were built as early as 1860 (according to this site: http://allcitysf.com/2011/03/what-are-those-brick-circles-in-sf-streets/), but the majority were put in place after the 1906 earthquake struck the city. They are built in such a way to be earthquake-proof and to be available should the other water systems fail (since they are independent).
According to this piece in the SF Gate (http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Brick-circles-above-needed-water-below-4046874.php), there are 177, with plans to build 16 more in new places in the city.
And in case it wasn't clear earlier - that city is San Francisco.
About 30 seconds to search and verify by image, with another couple minutes reading up and comparing the results.
I searched for "city street circle of bricks" and the first non-sponsored link was to an article entitled "What Are Those Brick Circles in SF Streets?" Further reading divulged that the rings outline cisterns filled with pressurized water used by the SF fire department. Total search time was about 5 seconds with an additional 30 seconds spent reading the content to find the answer!
ReplyDeleteStarted with an image search of the last picture in your post. Added to the describe image [ brick circles ]
ReplyDeletehttp://allcitysf.com/2011/03/what-are-those-brick-circles-in-sf-streets/
took me to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Fire_Department_Auxiliary_Water_Supply_System
ANSWER
The circles mark cisterns for emergency water supplies. Some possibly date as early as 1860 but more installed after the 1906 earthquake. There are ~177 cisterns in the San Francisco area.
"Each brick circle outlines an underground cistern full of pressurized water. The cisterns, ranging in size from 10,000 gallons to 250,000 gallons, are supplemental water supplies for the SF Fire Dept in addition to the high pressure and low pressure systems. They are accessible by special green hydrant valves and are tested every few years to ensure integrity.
ReplyDeleteThere are 172 cisterns strategically spread throughout SF, totaling 11 million gallons of auxiliary water, enough to cover the city 1.25″ deep, and are part of the San Francisco Fire Department Auxiliary Water Supply System, a subset of The San Francisco High Pressure Water System.
Fifty four of the oldest were built as early as 1860. They exist independently of other water systems in the city and were put in place following the 1906 earthquake. As you may recall, it was the fires following the quake that destroyed most of the city and lack of water supply was a key reason the conflagration was able to do so much damage. In the event we were to experience another catastrophic earthquake, the high pressure supply system could be compromised and fire fighters would need immediate access to large quantities of water. These cisterns provide that additional flow, and as part of the high pressure supply, are unique to any city in the United States."
http://allcitysf.com/2011/03/what-are-those-brick-circles-in-sf-streets/
I searched brick circles in San Francisco streets. Took about 2 mins.
I did a Google Image search on [brick circle embedded in the street]. Scrolling through the images I found this page: http://ronslog.typepad.com/ronslog/2010/05/emergency-preparedness-in-san-francisco.html with a lot of information on the “San Francisco Fire Department Auxiliary Water Supply System”
ReplyDeleteWhat are these circles? Each brick circle outlines an underground cistern full of pressurized water.
Why and when were they made? It's a piece of the history of the 1906 earthquake and conflagration.
How many more can I expect to find? There are 172 cisterns.
Finally, in what city do these circles appear? San Francisco.
I found the answers in less than a minute.
Cisterns, 1906 post fire for water storage, 172-177, San Fran
ReplyDeleteTook about two minutes to search the images first and then the following two queries which basically answered the question:
circles around drains -lyrics (-lyrics because suggested came up with a song title there)
Then I tried:
"brick circles around drains -lyrics"
Which gave me http://www.belle-aurore.com/mike/2008/01/san-franciscos-underground-water-tanks/ as the 3rd hit - which looked likely! and basically gave me everything to search for:
"The San Francisco Fire Department cisterns"
The fire dept lists 172 (I've seen 177 and 175 on other sites). Finding build date is quite hard, but after 1906 (and presumably after the proposal in April 1907! http://www.sfmuseum.org/conflag/watt.html ). Of course (see below) if some of these were re-opened, then the build dates will have been over a much longer period inc. before 1906.
I actually followed the links from the above though out of curiosity.
That linked: http://www.sfgov.org/site/sffd_page.asp?id=63381 which is a deadlink
Searching for it (in case of a cache) suggests "one of 172" from a flickr result (quoting that deadlink)
From one of those images (http://www.flickr.com/photos/26379582@N00/2271582511/), a museum link: http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/hpfs.html
" Taking a lesson from the Pioneers and their construction of cisterns, fifty-four of the old cisterns built as far back as 1860 were repaired and placed in service. In addition to these eighty-five new reinforced concrete cisterns were built, making a total of 139. The new cisterns were built to contain 75,000 gallons each, while the old ones, built of brick contain varying amounts of from 32,000 gallons to 90,000 gallons. These cisterns and the three large reservoirs are kept filled from the local water company’s mains. "
They're in San Francisco. Huge cisterns - an emergency water supply for earthquakes and fires. There are 172 of them and they were built after the 1906 earthquake.
ReplyDeleteI recognized the city by its hills, it was easy after that. It took me a minute.
These are the top of water cisterns in San Fransisco. Various sources identify 175 (SF city guide count: http://www.sf-fire.org/index.aspx?page=1003) or 172 (SFFD guide count: http://tinyurl.com/au8tjlm) underground cisterns in San Fransisco that were put into service after the great fire of 1906 (some of them were built as far back as 1860 (http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/hpfs.html - which is purpotedly a SF city record from 1925 and indicates that at that time there were 139 cisterns).
ReplyDeleteTheir purpose since 1906 and the reason they were all put into service after that time was to avert another fire like the great fire. They can apparently cover the entire city with over an inch of water.
~60 seconds. The third picture was the key clue as it was pretty clearly a SF city picture - Google search for "San Fransisco brick street circles"
-What are these circles?
ReplyDeleteIndications of San Francisco Fire Department water storage tank.
-Why and when were they made?
In case the Auxiliary Water Supply System fails these can be used by the fire department.
-How many more can I expect to find?
172
-Finally, in what city do these circles appear?
San Francisco
I googled on "stone circles street san francisco" because I recognised SF (more of a gamble that payed out) in the latest photo. First result was a blogpost: http://colevalleyalley.com/2011/01/06/secret-of-stones/
From there I redefined my search to "San Francisco Fire Department water storage tank" which lead to Wikipedia and the SFFD itself: http://www.sf-fire.org/index.aspx?page=1003
Easiest challenge for me so far, just out of the luck of having chosen a very effective search string: [road brick circles]. The first result is an entry on a SF photo blog and answers everything: http://allcitysf.com/2011/03/what-are-those-brick-circles-in-sf-streets
ReplyDeleteFortunately I don't know the English word for the access lid that, as I noticed on your photos, is the center of those circles, otherwise that would have been my first choice to use in a search string. And it would probably would be less effective…
I knew from the background in the last picture that this was San Francisco and from the size I thought they might be old cable car turnarounds, so I pursued that with both web and image searches for about ten minutes. Then I just Googled brick circles San Francisco streets and the correct answer came up that they are cisterns to supply water in case of a huge fire, such as the one that took place after the 1906 earthquake when the municipal water supply failed. Here's a website that give the complete explanation. http://www.sfmuseum.org/quake/awss2.html It took about 15 minutes altogether, but only 5 once I got on the right track.
ReplyDeleteThis might have been the quickest I've ever done one of these challenges.
ReplyDeleteMy first, and only, search string looked like this [san francisco pavement circles]. I chose San Francisco as the location because I know that is the area you are out of/near.
The first result was a wiki entry from SF Wiki called Mysterious Brick Circles (https://sfwiki.org/Mysterious_Brick_Circles). I checked it out and bingo!
The circles are markers for underground water cisterns. After the 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed much of the city, the cisterns were created as a backup to the hydrants. There are some links to more information and the first one has information from the fire department's spokesperson (http://www.belle-aurore.com/mike/2008/01/san-franciscos-underground-water-tanks/).
Apparently there are 172 cisterns that can hold up to a total of 11 million gallons of water, or about 1.25" of rain on the entire city.
After figuring out what they were, a search for [San Francisco cisterns] spits back a TON of sites, favorite being this one: http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/1908-cistern-circles
These brick circles might look decorative, but there’s much more to them than what’s on the surface. Underneath each is a concrete tank that holds 75,000 gallons of water. 172 of these underground cisterns exist throughout the city, making up an important component of San Francisco’s Auxiliary Water Supply System (AWSS).
ReplyDeletehttp://untappedcities.com/2012/06/29/cisterns/
Took a couple of minutes to find. Used the term "brick circles" embedded in streets
It was too easy :-(
ReplyDeleteSearch Gogle [brick circles on street]
First result: http://allcitysf.com/2011/03/what-are-those-brick-circles-in-sf-streets/
Underground cisterns
Supplemental water supplies for the San Francisco
Fire Department
The first 54 were built as early as 1860
There are 172 cisterns so you find 3. There's 169 more to find ;-)
Less than 1 minute.
But Daniel, in the center (apparently) you can read CISTERN SFFD so you already knew that ha ha ha http://sfappeal.com/news/images/cistern.jpg
They are pieces of the history of the 1906 earthquake and conflagration.
ReplyDeleteThey indicate a cistern that holds supplemental water for the fire system
I searched in images for: san francisco brick circle pavement street
Source: http://ronslog.typepad.com/ronslog/2010/05/emergency-preparedness-in-san-francisco.html
search: "Brick street Circles"
ReplyDeleteresult: San Francisco - "Each one marks a 75,000 gallon cistern that is an emergency water supply for earthquakes and fires. These were installed during the rebuilding effort after the 01906 earthquake. "
" a total of 175 independent, underground water cisterns are positioned beneath the intersections, most with a capacity of 75,000 gallons, with some ranging up to 200,000 gallons. "
sources : http://blog.longnow.org/02007/09/19/cistern-circles-of-san-francisco/
http://www.sfmuseum.org/quake/awss2.html
time: <1 minute
Searched for 'LA brick circle road', and found http://blog.longnow.org/02007/09/19/cistern-circles-of-san-francisco/
ReplyDeleteI knew it was LA from the steep drop-off shown in the third image, those hills are very distinctive. The key definition of the circles was they are made out of brick, they are circular and they're in the road.
First search found the answer - cistern projects to store huge amounts of water. Very cool.
Easy Peasy. These mark cisterns which are part of the San Francisco Fire Department Auxiliary Water Supply System, (AWSS).
ReplyDeleteA search for [circle of bricks in road] and the top hit http://blog.longnow.org/02007/09/19/cistern-circles-of-san-francisco/ revealed the answer in the comments, a search for [Auxiliary Water Supply System] as suggested in one of those comments provided lots more information.
These were built in reaction to the 1906 fire.
Each brick circle outlines an underground cistern full of pressurized water, used by the fire department.
ReplyDeleteThey were made starting from 1860.
172 total circles.
Appears in San Francisco
Had a hunch that it was SFO based on the last picture and the hills.
Googled "brick circle street" .
The first link was:
http://allcitysf.com/2011/03/what-are-those-brick-circles-in-sf-streets/
It pretty much answered all the questions.
Total time: 5 minutes
I searched for: san franciso street stone circles and the best answer was: http://colevalleyalley.com/2011/01/06/secret-of-stones/
ReplyDeleteTwo minutes. But I recognized SF onb your picture.
I'm almost too embarrassed to post my answer, because my methods were quite simple.
ReplyDeleteI first tried searching by image, but the bricks were not distinct enough in the pictures to bring back any useful results.
I then searched "brick circle city street" --
#1 result is entitled: "What Are Those Brick Circles in SF Streets?" (http://allcitysf.com/2011/03/what-are-those-brick-circles-in-sf-streets/).
This article explains that the bricks mark the outlines on an underground cistern full of pressurized water utilized by the SF Fire Department as supplemental water supplies.
The article also lists four sources, including the fire department's website.
I checked another article or two that came back with the same answer.
So I feel reasonable confident about my answer.
I just realized that I forgot to provide a full answer...
ReplyDeleteWhat are these circles?
The cisterns, ranging in size from 10,000 gallons to 250,000 gallons, are supplemental water supplies for the SF Fire Dept in addition to the high pressure and low pressure systems. They are accessible by special green hydrant valves and are tested every few years to ensure integrity.
Why and when were they made?
The first 54 were built in 1860. The rest were built after the 1906 earthquake. Construction was completed in 1913, according to Wikipedia.
How many more can I expect to find?
175-6 more. Though my initial source stated there were 172 total, more authoritative sources associated with the fire department itself listed the total number at 176 or 177.
Finally, in what city do these circles appear?
San Francisco, CA
These circles mark cisterns of reserve water if the city's pipelines fail.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Brick-circles-above-needed-water-below-4046874.php
After a few false starts: [stone circle intersection] and [masonry circle intersection], I finally got good hits on [brick circle intersection] and found the SF Gate article.
A hilly city, must be San Francisco. Search "san francisco brick circles". Answer: "The circles in the pavement mark the location of huge underground cisterns, each approximately 32' in diameter and containing several thousand gallons of water to be used as backup should normal hydrant lines fail" after an earthquake. Site, http://sfwiki.org/Mysterious_Brick_Circles, time taken 50 seconds.
ReplyDeleteThese are stone cistern circles in San Francisco(see http://blog.longnow.org/02007/09/19/cistern-circles-of-san-francisco/):
ReplyDelete"Each one marks a 75,000 gallon cistern that is an emergency water supply for earthquakes and fires. These were installed during the rebuilding effort after the 1906 earthquake"
There are about 177 of them.
Time: less than one minute
Made an educated guess that this was San Francisco, and Googled:
brick circles street san francisco
Link above was the top result.
Then I searched "san francisco cisterns" in Google, which yielded this result, giving the total number of cisterns:
http://sfappeal.com/news/2010/11/there-are-brick-circles-at.php
Cheers,
Jay
"brick circle on the road" gave me the answer with the first link:
ReplyDelete"These brick circles might look decorative, but there’s much more to them than what’s on the surface. Underneath each is a concrete tank that holds 75,000 gallons of water. 172 of these underground cisterns exist throughout the city, making up an important component of San Francisco’s Auxiliary Water Supply System (AWSS)."
Good day Dr. Russell.
ReplyDelete[brick embedded street San Francisco]
Found: http://exploresf.wordpress.com/ There:
http://untappedcities.com/2012/06/29/cisterns/
Image with [San Francisco Cistern circles]
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/1908-cistern-circles
[Auxiliary Water Supply System]
http://www.sfmuseum.org/quake/awss2.html
and http://www.sfwater.org/index.aspx?page=467
http://sfwater.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?
documentid=2252
http://www.sfwater.org/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=2501
What are these circles? Why and when were they made? How many more can I expect to find? Finally, in what city do these circles appear?
A. These circles are cisterns in San Francisco. They form part of Auxiliary Water Supply System (Awwss) "The Emergency Firefighting Water Supply System (AWSS), is an
independent highpressure water supply system dedicated to fire protection."
Built in 1913 in response to the 1906 Great Earthquake.
There are approximately 200. "The installation of 16 new cisterns for fire protection is anticipated to begin by summer 2013."
Time is difficult to measure because I read new information while learning. I would say 30 mins.
I think it is in San Francisco (from the last picture, I deduced the location with the hills).
ReplyDeleteI believe this is what is left of a cable car roundabout from an old line. There are currently 3 lines, so that would imply that there are currently 6 roundabouts. But I do not know how many abandoned roundabouts there are.
The search took about 5 minutes
I think it is in San Francisco (from the last picture, I deduced the location with the hills).
ReplyDeleteI believe this is what is left of a cable car roundabout from an old line. There are currently 3 lines, so that would imply that there are currently 6 roundabouts. But I do not know how many abandoned roundabouts there are.
San Francisco. I tried an image search dropping the picture into the search box. That didn't work. I tried a few text searches. Nothing. Then I went back to image search and typed: "brick circles in road". It was attached to this site. Oh, it took me 5 to 10 minutes.
ReplyDeletehttps://sfwiki.org/Mysterious_Brick_Circles
"San Francisco has numerous mysterious brick circles implanted in seemingly random intersections all over the city. The first one can go without mention - but once you see a second, a third, and fourth... it's enough to make the most apathetic people curious.
It turns out that these mysterious brick circles are an important part of San Francisco, and the SFFD's, history. After the 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed the city the government created an emergency water system to prevent future disasters. The circles in the pavement mark the location of huge underground cisterns, each approximately 32' in diameter and containing several thousand gallons of water to be used as backup should normal hydrant lines fail."
Today’s challenge: What are these circles? Why and when were they made? How many more can I expect to find? Finally, in what city do these circles appear? Started with what city and speculated you would be in SF - confirmed using the last photo by searching for [golden domes san francisco] found Holy Virgin Cathedral and after going to maps & looking around, made my way up the hill to 26th Av. & Balboa - the intersection where the last photo was taken (interesting that the same Subaru wagon seems to be parked on the right - looking toward Little Russia/South Bay). Anyway, was mistakenly thinking the circles might mark former streetcar turnarounds, but that search wasn't useful so added [brick circles] and that provided the key to the cisterns - went back to the maps streetview & confirmed "CISTERN SFFD" is on the personhole covers and searched the history of the cisterns that were built in response to the 1906 earthquake & fire and the failure of the existing water system.
ReplyDeleteAnswers: the brick circles designate cistern locations of the SF AWSS.
AWSS conceived in 1903, construction beginning in 1909, complete 1913.
Total number of cisterns: discrepancy, both from SFFD documents - 172 or 177 - 177 seems to be cited more - the original idea at the time of construction was to have a cistern within a quarter mile of any building - obviously, San Francisco has changed since then.
SFFD AWSS
SFFD 1
SFFD 2
SF history
I tried using one of your images on image search but wound up asking for it to look for brick circles in road and got a blog (http://blog.longnow.org/02007/09/19/cistern-circles-of-san-francisco/)that explained that they were water cisterns built in San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake to ensure there would be enough water for the city should disater strike again.
ReplyDeleteThe same search term in google got me more useful sites, including http://allcitysf.com/2011/03/what-are-those-brick-circles-in-sf-streets/ which says there are 172 cisterns. It also says that the cisterns are pressurized and used for fighting fires.
It took me about 3 minutes
I don't even need Google to figure those out. Trolley Car turn arounds.
ReplyDeleteCircles mark cisterns in the streets of San Francisco. Fifty four were built as early as 186. They exist independently of other water systems in the city and were put in place following the 1906 earthquake.There are 172 cisterns strategically spread throughout San Francisco.
ReplyDeleteI did a Google search for "brick circles in the streets" (no quotations). While typing, I saw Google's autfill already pop up San Francisco. I selected the first link which gave all of the information requested at this site:
http://allcitysf.com/2011/03/what-are-those-brick-circles-in-sf-streets/
It took me one search and one click to find the page with the answer - much quicker than typing out the answer...
Another really fascinating topic. Well Done.
ReplyDeleteThe first image clearly shows SFFD.
I guessed San Francisco and first thought of cable cars but noticed there were no cableways.
Searched on [brick circles in road san francisco]
This took about 20 seconds to find:
http://allcitysf.com/2011/03/what-are-those-brick-circles-in-sf-streets/ Then I verified with SF Fire Dept http://www.sf-fire.org/index.aspx?page=1003
The High Pressure Water System via http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/hpfs.html
Provided more facts.
These mark out the locations of 172 water cisterns for one of several back-up systems for fire fighting. The earliest date from the 1860s and more were built after The Fire.
You have found 3 of the 172 so I calculate that you can expect to find 169 more circles in San Francisco.
About a minute all together
Nifty Challenge
Turns out, it's a piece of the history of the 1906 earthquake and conflagration.
ReplyDeleteThey indicate a cistern that holds supplemental water for the fire system. There are 393 of them in the city of San Francisco.
This is the website i got my information from.
http://ronslog.typepad.com/ronslog/2010/05/emergency-preparedness-in-san-francisco.html
It took me about 3 minutes to solve. I work in SF and although i have never seen them before, the street shot with the steep hills gave it away. I asked my coworkers and they had never seen the circles either. I went to google and i did an image search. First i did stone circles. That wasnt giving me what i needed to i changed it to brick circles. One of the images from the web site appeared, and from there i got all the information i needed!
simply googled "brick circle at intersection" thinking that would be a good first step. First hit was a winner! I was pretty sure that the manhole cover in the center was a clue, but didn't even need that.
ReplyDeleteupdate regarding the # of cisterns...
ReplyDeletehave seen a number as low as 150 "actively maintained" to as high as "approximately 200 cisterns"(summer 2012) the cistern maintenance moved to the SF Public Utilities Commission in 2010 from the SFFD...
so the number seems to be... fluid - "ba-dum-bum-CHING"
personhole SFFD
not all have circles
SF WPS SFPUC
26th&Balboa use streetview put N at top
Took about 3 minutes. I noticed that the circles seemed to be at intersections so I began with Google search:
ReplyDelete[street brick circles intersections]. The first result, an article from SF Gate, indicated that the circles mark underground cisterns in San Francisco. There are 177 in total with 16 more expected to be created in new sections of the city. Comments on this page and the second result (SF wiki) indicated that the cisterns were built in response to the 1906 earthquake/fire, as an emergency back-up water system.
What are these circles?
ReplyDeleteThey mark the outlines of underground cisterns of highly pressurized water.
Why and when were they made?
The earliest 54 were built around 1860, but the majority were added after the earthquake of 1906 because the lack of water contributed to the fire damage caused by the earthquake.
How many more can I expect to find?
There are 72 of them throughout the city. Finally, in what city do these circles appear?
They are in San Francisco.
I googled brick circles streets usa and the first result was a blog about San Francisco urban photography. It took me about a minute, only because I accidentally typed "stone" instead of "brick" at first (having just read the word "Stonehenge")!
How can I submit a possible question?
ReplyDeleteif you've got a good question (or even an idea), write to me via email! (You should be able to find my address!)
DeleteFound it instantly by means aof a (common) wrong guess:
ReplyDeletebrick circle cable car
Brought up an article in SF Gate revealing they are cisterns for firefighting.
Took me just a few seconds. Since I know you to be from San Francisco, I searched San Francisco brick street circles. The first hit was a blog explaining what they were and when they were put in. They are part of San Francisco's auxiliary water supply system, and mark the location of cisterns installed after the 1906 earthquake to provide an emergency water supply for fires or earthquakes. There are 175 cisterns.
ReplyDeleteI searched Mountain View brick circles. 0.39 seconds It was the 4th result. http://untappedcities.com/2012/06/29/cisterns/
ReplyDeleteI happened to notice that there seemed to be a manhole at the center of each one. My search term was "brick circle around manhole" and it took me right to this site: http://www.firenuggets.com/murray.htm
ReplyDeleteI next searched "cistern sffd", which took me to this page which confirmed the story. http://www.sf-fire.org/index.aspx?page=1003
Finally, "cistern san Francisco bricks" took me to http://untappedcities.com/2012/06/29/cisterns/ and http://blog.longnow.org/02007/09/19/cistern-circles-of-san-francisco/ which gave me pretty much the whole story. Total search time, less than a minute.
Guessing that the pictures were taken in San Francisco (a guess supported by the hill the road descends in the 3rd photo), I searched "stone circle San Francisco" (no quotes).
ReplyDeleteDue to Google's focus on the "Stone Circles" part, I ended up with loads of articles about neolithic monuments, so I changed the search to "brick circles San Francisco". The images shown inline were sufficient to confirm the city was SF. the fifth result (http://www.belle-aurore.com/mike/2008/01/san-franciscos-underground-water-tanks/) yielded sufficient information in the blurb to confirm that they mark cisterns for use by the SF Fire Dept.
This search took all of two minutes, if that.
Markers for underground San Francisco cisterns; put in place after 1906 fire.
ReplyDeleteI searched "random brick circle in street" without quotations and the first result explained it. Estimated time is less than 1 minute.
https://sfwiki.org/Mysterious_Brick_Circles
Less than a minute. "circle brick in asphalt" led to this concise article as the first result
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Brick-circles-above-needed-water-below-4046874.php
So 177 intersections in San Fransisco contain 32 ft diameter circles indicating the presence of cisterns full of emergency water firefighters can tap into should infrastructure fail.
What they are: They mark the locations of concrete tanks that hold 75,000 gallons of water.
ReplyDeleteWhy and when they were made: They were made after the 1906 earthquake because firefighters didn't have enough usable hydrants or water supply to put out the fires during the quake.
How many: 172 of them exist in the city, so you would find 169 more.
City: San Francisco
Time: Took about 4 minutes.
Search strategy:
1. General query for [stone circles streets] turned up only results for stone statues
2. Image search for [city street brick circle] showed a number of brick circle pictures in the street. The one in the fifth row linked to a flickr photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/elithebearded/415276749/. Commenters talked about how they marked underground water cisterns after the San Francisco earthquake.
3. A general query for [underground water cisterns marked by bricks] led to an article that held all the answers: http://untappedcities.com/2012/06/29/cisterns/
Cisterns
ReplyDelete5mins googled with red brick circle around manholes > Cisterns wiki > San Francisco’s Underground Water Supply
Searched for "san francisco road circles", and the first article came up with the results. 25 seconds to recognise San Francisco by the landscape and type in the search box!
ReplyDeleteI ran this search - (brick OR stone) circles (pavement OR street) ("san francisco" OR sf) which of course brought up the water cisterns. I looked up San Fran because the hills looked so very familiar. So the answer to your questions:
ReplyDeleteWhat are these circles? water cisterns
Why and when were they made? After the 1906 earthquake, SF needed an emergency water backup so they created the cisterns.
How many more can I expect to find? 177 total
Finally, in what city do these circles appear? San Francisco
That was too simple. It took less than one minute to type "brick circles" and "San Francisco Streets". There are excellent articles in Wikipedia and Blog Long Now. http://blog.longnow.org/02007/09/19/cistern-circles-of-san-francisco/. The circles indicate water cisterns for the auxiliary water supply system and were first seen after the earthquake of 1906. There are at least 177 cisterns.
ReplyDeleteFirst, a red herring:
ReplyDelete[niddry street stone circle] (Thanks to Google Instant, which came up as I was doing [street stone circle])
Then after looking at the first page of search results:
[niddry street vaults stone circle]
Then wanting to make sure I could generalize/replicate the lesson:
[street stone circle ghost]
http://www.paranormalnews.com/article.aspx?id=1312
"We were taken to another vault were there is a stone circle, no one is meant to set foot within the circle for there is supposed to be an evil entity within it. Subsequently when most haunted were filming one of the crew was stood in the circle and sustained three big scratches were he needed a total of five stitches. The guide who was taking us around was actually there on that night and refuses to set foot inside of this circle."
http://www.simplyghostnights.co.uk/our-blog/posts/2012/ghost-hunting-at-the-niddry-street-vaults,-edinburgh,-with-simply-ghost-nights,-16th-june-2012.aspx
"We were aware of the cursed stone circle said to befall bad luck and death for those stupid enough to stand in them."
Thing is, those circles may have sat near streets, but not on them. And if they were supposed to be cursed, why did people continue to drive over them en masse?
Then I looked back at the challenge. It seems that the second and third photos featured brick circles. So, back to the drawing board:
[brick circle street]
http://allcitysf.com/2011/03/what-are-those-brick-circles-in-sf-streets/
"In fact, each brick circle outlines an underground cistern full of pressurized water...There are 172 cisterns strategically spread throughout SF, totaling 11 million gallons of auxiliary water, enough to cover the city 1.25″ deep, and are part of the San Francisco Fire Department Auxiliary Water Supply System, a subset of The San Francisco High Pressure Water System. Fifty four of the oldest were built as early as 1860. They exist independently of other water systems in the city and were put in place following the 1906 earthquake."
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Brick-circles-above-needed-water-below-4046874.php
"There's no visual clue to explain the cryptic brick arcs that mark 177 intersections in San Francisco...[T]hey signal the presence of underground cisterns that hold up to 200,000 gallons of water. They were installed a century ago [as of November 2012] as an infrastructure of last resort: should city pipelines fail, firefighters can tap into the small reservoirs and draw water for their hoses."
With regard to the number, since (1) the second source is a newspaper, which I consider more authoritative than a blog and (2) it directly addresses the number of arcs themselves (I see no reason to believe that one arc can only mark one cistern and vice versa, and the question, of
course, referred to the arcs), I'll take 177 as the number.
This took me c 15 minutes, in part because I needed to go back a couple of times to the same sources to verify different facts.
Keep up the good work!
Jeff Deutsch
I hadn't seen the paranormal news. That's fun! Thanks!
DeleteAbout 2 minutes and 3 Google searches. Initially typed "brick stone circles embedded in street" and this lead me to a website about Christ Church (which above the fold was obviously wrong). I then searched "red brick circles embedded in street" and came across a blog post from June 2012 on untappedcities.com/2012/06/29/cisterns.
ReplyDeleteThey mark the cisterns, or auxiliary water supply, for San Francisco developed after the 1906 earthquake that destroyed (mostly by fire) a lot of the city. 172 total cisterns holding 75,000 gallons of water and most of the marked by the stone circles, but not all of them (more appropriately, each cistern is marked by a green topped fire hydrant).
Pretty quick for my first research quest....typed in the following search on Google and found it "architecture in roads united states circles bricks". Answer was on page one of the search. Admittedly it looked a lot like San Fran from the pic so I initially went to Google earth, but recognized my folly and went to the search. 3 minutes top.
ReplyDeletesearched for:
ReplyDeletebrick circles in streets
got:
they signal the presence of underground cisterns
Late 19th to early 20th centuries
177 and plans for 16 more.
San Francisco
Got it on the forst try. 2 min
Hi dan,
ReplyDeleteI search for brick circle manholes. kinda weird, cause I notice that there are always two manholes inside the red circular brick. Anyways, according to wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Fire_Department_Auxiliary_Water_Supply_System) there are 177 circular bricks (cistern) but according to alison miller (http://untappedcities.com/2012/06/29/cisterns/) there are 172 bricks. I guess there are cistern with no circular bricks, cant find verify the variance.
It is obvious that photos taken in San Francisco area because of the steep downhill and uphill.
Locations of cisterns in San Francisco. Searched 'brick circles in San Francisco' and found lots of info immediately. Took about 30 seconds. SF because of the hills in the photo with water beyond, a typical SF view. 'Bricks' because that's what the circles are made of.
ReplyDeleteGoogle search, that's it.
My native language is russian and I never have been to San Francisco. So it is not easy.
ReplyDelete1) search by images from this post didn't get the results
2) I made query in images.google.com [brick circles pavement roads] Hmmm - it didn't like to me
3) after that I noticed a lot of wells on the road and specify query [brick circles pavement roads wells] - second image is very similar and it was on the page about underground cisterns (https://sfwiki.org/Mysterious_Brick_Circles)
4) then I found official San-Francisco Fire Department document (http://www.sf-fire.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=1631) and get the number.
Answers
What are these circles? - underground cisterns, each approximately 32' in diameter
Why and when were they made? - The cisterns are large water holding tanks and are
an integral part of the Auxiliary Water Supply System. It was originally proposed by Dennis T. Sullivan in 1903 with construction beginning in 1909 and finishing in 1913 in response to the failure of the existing emergency water system during the 1906 earthquake.
How many more can I expect to find? - 177
Finally, in what city do these circles appear? - San Francisco
Today’s challenge:
ReplyDeleteWhat are these circles? Reference to water supply systems
Why and when were they made? in 1906 after the huge earthquake to
How many more can I expect to find? about 177 (didn't take time to read exactly)
Finally, in what city do these circles appear? San Francisco
less than a minute
google search "brick circles in street" wich lead to san francisco
google search "brick circles in sfr" lead to http://allcitysf.com/2011/03/what-are-those-brick-circles-in-sf-streets/
What surprises me more is why I got the newsletter only about an hour ago (it's Jan. 24,, 11 a.m. in Europe) while I see that so many of you supplied the answer already yesterday.
What's the reason for that?
Don't know why it was delayed... probably held up in a server somewhere along the way.
DeleteClicked on the photo. It loaded as brick-circle. Googled brick circle found images. These are Cistern Circles in San Francisco marking the 172 cisterns the oldest dating back to 1860. It took me under a minute.
ReplyDeleteSearched Google for: Brick Circles in Street and came up with several that did not look like the one pictured in the challenge.
ReplyDeleteChanged search to: Large Brick Circles in Road and still didn’t have the desired effect .
So I changed my search from Google to Google Images and that gave me the exact picture he posted. When I clicked on it I found a Wiki Blog called SFWiki that turned out most helpful in the history of these brick circles. It told me of water cisterns that had been put underground in San Francisco to fight fires and how that was what was used to mark them. This was not good enough for me though because, after all it is just a Wiki, so I continued my search in Google.
This time my search was: Underground cisterns in San Francisco. Viola! I scrolled down a few and there was a link to sf-fire.org which explained the different water sources used by the San Francisco fire department. These cisterns are strategically placed all over the city and completely separate from the city water supply so that they may be accessible in case of a city wide emergency.
Took me about 2 minutes.
The brick circles mark SFFD's underground cisterns. Solved mostly because I recognized the street as being a street in San Francisco (I used to live there). I entered a Google search for "brick circles San Francisco". Result: https://sfwiki.org/Mysterious_Brick_Circles
ReplyDeleteIt took me less than one minute. Thanks!
I initially searched by image and it only produced the exact pics posted with comments from SearchResearch - decided to use the normal search approeach and typed in 'Search brick circles' and the choices included San Francisco which I selected. Various articles and questions posted on yahoo etc explained they are Underground cisterns for emergencies.
ReplyDeleteI looked for "circles in pavement" and the answer (SF) with an explanation came right away. I loved learning about it!
ReplyDeleteIt looks like your search challenges are creating trends in Google's algorithm that populate results in Google's autocomplete.
ReplyDeleteCould the fact that your are posing this question, which then sends a wave of similar and related queries to Google sway the results of similar queries?