The current beacon on Beacon Street is the giant Citgo sign. It has been a Boston landmark since 1940 (neon bulbs were added in 1965). The sign is visible from great distances on both sides of the Charles River, especially as you approach the city from the west.During the oil crisis of 1973, the sign's many blinking neon bulbs were turned off to conserve power. They were again turned off from 1979 to 1982 for the same reason. The Charles River was darkened when reflecting light from the Citgo Sign was extinguished. In 1982, the Citgo Company planned to dismantle the sign, and a populist effort was made to preserve it as a symbol of Roadside Americana. In 1983, the Citgo Company paid $450,000 to refurbish the sign, and since then the light from this huge beacon has again lit up Boston's Back Bay. Today the company has a free Boston Citgo Sign screensaver available on the web. The sign is 60 feet by 60 feet and contains 5,878 neon lights. Runners in the Boston Marathon each year are motivated when the sign becomes visible late in the race. The sign is displayed on countless TV sets when baseball sluggers hit a homerun over the left field wall at Fenway Park.
The map below
of Citgo Sign is
interactive, includes the streets/major
attractions in the immediate area, and can
be easily zoomed, reformatted or
repositioned to meet your needs.
Map of Citgo Sign
Location
NOTE:
click/drag map to reposition it, use +/- to rescale
or buttons change format
MAP INSTRUCTIONS
You
can use the controls in the upper left-hand corner
to Move This Map in any direction and also to
Zoom-In for a closer look or zoom-out to get
a wider perspective. You can also Drag the Map
in any direction if you hold the left mouse button
down. Click the upper-right hand Satellite or
Hybrid buttons to change the view to include
satellite images and overlay a street map.
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