This was BY FAR the most exciting of the stops my dad and I made on our fabulous two day road trip from Boston to central Ohio. And that means a lot when you take a look at all the odd, quirky, beautiful, unique things we saw. I read about this stop on Roadside America. Have I not mentioned that wonderful site to you before? Go there now. It’s brilliant.
Anyway, so there we are, driving along. Instead of an address for this stop I only have a street name. After a few potentially illegal u-turns we turn onto Tompkins Street in Syracuse, NY. My dad drives slowly as we squint down the street at traffic light after traffic light, trying to identify the one that is green on top.
And then, suddenly, there it is coming into view. “That’s iiiiiittttt!!!!” I’ve never been so excited to see a traffic light in my life. We were on the verge of tears. It was much more emotional than anyone could have anticipated. You’d get worked up too, trust me. It just seems so wrong! And yet so right…
We found a spot to park, barely taking our eyes off of this oddity for a second. Snapped some pictures: red on bottom, green on top, yellow in the middle (wait, I guess that one’s normal). Across the street there was a little “park,” if you can call it that, with a small statue of an Irish immigrant family. That’s the history behind the green on top light as far as I can find out: it’s in a traditionally Irish neighborhood.
I hear it gets pretty crazy there on St. Patrick’s Day.
Where: Tompkins St. Syracuse, NY
When: Whenever cars are driven.
Cost: Oh so free.
Safe Travels!!
Are there any stats on how safe it is? Guess the only accidents are people stopping to look at it!
Not any that I know of! I was actually surprised to find out that the street was very low-traffic. There was plenty of space to pull over to the side of the road too. Hopefully there aren’t too many accidents because they might get rid of it if there were!
These days there are signs before you enter the intersection from all directions telling you the green is on top. Growing up there I don’t recall any more accidents reported there than at any other traffic signal in town. Here is a link to a brief history as to why the green is on top. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipperary_Hill
Pingback: Those Long Yellow Links « That Long Yellow Line
its actually not to bad, I live in Syracuse and believe it or not there hasnt been an accident caused by the light being upside down. Its not in a very busy becuase its acutally a side road where the 2 roads meet
That’s right, I remember it being pretty quite when we visited too. Good thing!