DC’s abandoned fire and police call boxes, explained
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- Опубликовано: 4 окт 2024
- A massive underground network of cables connected street corners to emergency services long before the telephone was invented.
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You’ve probably walked by them on street corners in Washington, DC: old cast-iron fixtures that definitely used to be something. Most are hollowed, while some have art installations or representations of local history inside. But what are they? And why are they all over the city?
These relics were actually crucial for urban communication before the days of the telephone. They’re fire and police call boxes, and they were installed in DC in the late 1800s.
The fire boxes, which came first, relied on a telegraph system. If you saw a fire, you would run down to the box and turn the key inside. It would send a message through underground cables to the central alarm center. The transmission matched a location on a giant map, telling the fire department where to send help.
The police boxes were used a little differently. They had telephones connected directly to the police department. The boxes were used by officers on patrol to check in from different street corners at different times to update central command, call for backup, or receive updated orders for their patrol area.
Over time, with the telephone becoming a common household technology and the invention of the 911 system in the 1970s, the boxes, which had cropped up across the country, slowly became obsolete. In DC, they were entirely abandoned as the city deemed the upkeep too expensive.
But in 2000, they found purpose again. A nonprofit organization called Cultural Tourism DC initiated "Art on Call" to restore the call boxes. The program encouraged local artists to turn them into neighborhood icons. So now these boxes serve the same street corners that they did more than 100 years ago.
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Ooooh I need to know how these worked.
Real Engineering Didn't know you watched Vox. Although with the RUclips recommended system it makes sense.
Real Engineering same
Real Engineering I have an old Gamewell Fire Call box that has a bakeite phone inside.
Love your channel, any teaser for your new video... plane related perhaps😎
always curious
I'm so glad I'm watching this video about a no longer used call box in a city I don't live in made by somebody I don't know while I should be sleeping. Thanks Vox.
Unfinished Sentenc i bet you're so glad you wrote that comment while you were supposed to be sleeping
Unfinished Sentenc in a continent I have never been in*
I'm glad to be reading a comment who someone I don't know wrote about a video that I can relate to him.
We have these in SF and they're being removed. Stupid idea to remove them since our cellular telephone system does down regularly in earthquakes as do most landline systems since they're on poles that fall in quakes.
These are VITAL in a city prone to earthquakes, fires and road blocks that occur regularly. When the phones go down, we need these more than ever.
William Diaz they really are removing them in SF? Wow what a bummer. They are so unique and interesting. I go there every now and then from Antioch.
If you can, please contact your local politician /branch of government to give voice to your complaint, we need more voice from the populace reaching the system.
Well if you feel that way why don't you write to your mayor and ask the city to stop? Why not start a petition or something?
William Diaz plus, its history!
@@Sara3346 lol
"Real old, even as old as the 1860s!!!"
Meanwhile Europeans are like: my house is two hundred years older than that.
Chinese: My tree is 1000 years older than that.
Russian: My vodka is much older than that!
Of course, but you know, it's really much easier to tear down a little box on the street corner than house. This 150-yo boxes survided so many years, but each one of them could have been demolished by one goon in 15 minutes throug their history. This is something, in my opinion.
Its not that impressive sorry dude haha.
I know there are much more impressive things in the world, but for me the smaller and easier to be broken things are preserved, the more impressive their history is. Maybe that's just me.
Turn them into WiFi access points?
Techon - NBA Videos no they are still used in emergencys
he is talking ab the ones in DC being used 4 art
Yogi yeahhhh
1) phones have data
2) no one's going to stay outdoors that long with a laptop
3) phones can be hotspots for said laptops
4) cost and maintenance isn't justified because of 1-3
Idk i could be wrong
@@aeyvan Data costs money though.
Honestly I think repurposing them with art looks beautiful...
Kevin The Vegan
You reposted in the wrong neighborhood.
Kevin The Vegan yep looks much better then get rid of it
Growing up in the DC area, I always wondered what those decayed metal boxes on street corners were for. Fascinating to learn of their real, though obsolete, use.
I used to work in DC, it was amazing, you would walk by these and not notice them, they were background. Then when you finally noticed one, you realized they were everywhere. Then you would begin looking out for the ones that have been turned into real art pieces. Many rag on DC, but in these boxes you see an expression of local history and culture. They're wonderful.
Some were still in service in the late 1960s, early 1970s. I pulled the fire call box in front of my house when I was about 4 or 5 years old. The ringing was so loud. I covered my ears. By the time the firetruck got there, my grandmother had pulled me inside.
I was punished for it.
I think what DC is doing with the boxes is great!
We have been doing something similar with the old red phoneboxes here in the UK. Many disused one have been turned into greenhouses, little neighbourhood libraries and even storage for difibrulators.
New York must still use them because if you listen to the FDNY frequency on a scanner app or through the Broadcastify you can hear them dispatch box alarms.
I worked in a small logging town in Washington state and found one of these at a auction and bought it. It was a Gamewell Fire Call Box. In very bad shape and I cleaned it up and repainted it. Now it's my favorite oddity and has a place of honor in my home decor.
In Phoenix, on mill avenue there are some old call boxes just like these. they are hollowed out and now are used as mini libraries. you take a book and replace it with another one. so the library is always changing.
Jake Engdahl I live in Phx but never knew they were old call boxes. Very cool, though in my neighborhood (Roosevelt area) they have one that they must have built because it is way too big, and wooden lol
LA Noire! Anyone remember that great game, and the emergency boxes that you can use across the city?
ARVIN "Cole Phelps, Badge Twelve Forty Seven."
They can still be modernised. Use them for the city-wifi projects most of these cities are working on now and people will cherish them.
I walk by these all the time in DC and genuinely never thought about what they might originally have been for! Thanks for the interesting background.
Of course in England you'd get Police Call boxes in small, usually blue, boxes, which had the added purpose of locking criminals in whilst awaiting for police cars to arrive. Almost none of them survive as they were all taken down, apart from some for sentimental or BBC licensing reasons.
TARDIS!
In small villages, where it’s harder for Police to reach people, and cell service can be poor, some of them still rely on their Police Telephone Boxes.
And some have been repurposed, such as the Green Box in Sheffield, which is now a tourist information hub
There are couple places that still have Fire boxes that are updated so ppl can pull them and get service. These have a camera inside so if it gets pulled it takes photo of person. to prevent false alarms. Its more or less like a Radio inside since it like just dials 911 dispatch. You pull handle down, it takes Photo of you, it dials 911, you talk to them for Help
I live near Pottsville, PA and they still have working fire boxes
So, what happened with the wire?
Did they take that part too or just leave it like that for centuries just like those boxes?
Well, removing the wires would have been harder and more expensive than removing the boxes. So yea, probably. I'm gonna guess most have been slowly removed over time as buildings and infrastructure was built.
You'd have to tear up already laid sidewalks and streets to pull out the wiring. But the video also says some boxes are still in use because they operate on their own systems and aren't affected by downed power grids or cell phone towers
They are in use in only some places, the rest have discontinued.
I still live here. Trust me, they left it in place.
It would be interesting idea that after neighborhoods make artful renditions of the police and fire call boxes, we could retrofit them later to be able to transmit through that wire and maybe other stuff.
- Phelps, badge 1247.
- How can I help Detective?
L.A Noire sweet
In L.A NOIRE you can see them on service and working and it looks great
Hahaha my first thought. 🤣
I do like 1860 being "really old", we've got royal mail post boxes older than that in the uk
Those boxes where ingenius and are ahead of its time.
I love how vox can take the most useless-looking information and make it interesting/insightful
Vox makes the best content out of information I never knew I needed to know.
have often seen these fire boxes in old movies, and wondered how they worked back then
thanks 😀👍
History is so amazing and beautiful
They should keep them as a memory
I live around DC so I go there a lot and always wondered what these were! Thanks!
I still have a red one on a street where my parents live. I remember looking in it all the time when I was younger when it still had the components for calling the fire department which was in walking distance. It's interesting to see what the boxes were used for and to know that other cities had them and still use them. Great video.
I see these around Boston all the time. They aren’t on every block but there’s always one every few blocks (even in the suburbs). I think it’s *super* helpful! It’s disappointing they’d discontinue them.
The art project was such a wonderful use of them!
I live 20 min away from DC and occasionally walk around. They look cool and I've actually seen one of the art box.
There are a lot of fascinating gems like this in DC! That's why I love this city!
Is that crosswalk at 2:42 going for 66 seconds???
Jesus would not want to be in a car at that intersection
There are some that go for 80 sec
My house was made before the 1800s. Just recently finished taking out the old floorboards but the wooden foundation is still good.
Americans: really old 1860. Europeans: really old about 700 to 1000
Imagine *Egypt*
Y'all don't have call boxes older than 1860
this is so impressive. I got a tear coming up
In the FDNY clip box numbers are still assigned to parts.of the city. Even here in Phila a "box" is a standard response 2 engines 2 ladders etc and then the number is assigned to a part of the city. So that part hasnt changed. My dad was retired PFD and we had a couple of old boxes and we put them back together. Miss that guy.
I like that "really old" dates back to the 1860s in America. Meanwhile my little English village dates back to at least the eleventh century.
I saw them in D C ,they're eveywhere and nice to see.
That was really interesting. And great video production, too.
Thank you!
I saw these in L.A Noire!
i actually live in dc so i love this stuff
The reason i love Vox is because i learn things i didnt know i was interested in, all in one big entertaining way
these were still operational into the late 70s. i was a dumb young lad at the time and pulled the one near my school more than once.
That was awesome, even made me tear up. So cool that the telegraph system is still used in some cities.
The cop in the cartoon Top Cat would always be using the police call box... this video reminded me of that.
We have those things all over NYC, and most of them still work too. But the nyc ones fire and police are in the same box
Hershey, PA fire company still has a firebox on the outside of their station in that still works.
nyc has a bunch of those too but, the ones in nyc have the fire & police department on the same call box
Top Cat kept his toothbrush & stuff in Officer Dibble's call box :)
Vox seems to make the best under 10 minute videos. Though CGP, WonderWhy, RLL, and Wendover, somehow make videos exactly as great as you do. Great videos Vox!
in milwaukee they got a bunch of those things all over, but designed a little bit differently, and no one made art out of them.
"They're really old...some date back to the 1860's"
Aww bless America. You'll have real history one day.
made my day, makes up for a bloody awful Christmas, thanks very much
25/12/'17 21:52 GMT
Saw these in a busy town book, and I wondered why they weren't in my town. A mystery finally solved!
I've been to DC twice and I never noticed these!
I’ve lived in D.C. for years and always passed by them wondering what they were and no one could ever give me an answer so thanks Vox!
They keep these decorated now with paint. It's a really nice touch.
I had to use a fire box similar to those in the mid 80s. They haven't been gone that long.
LA Noire taught me about them
Never noticed those things once after all the times I've been to DC.
I've literally never noticed and have lived in D.C. My whole life
Victoria P now youll notice haha
i love how americans are like "they are REALLY OLD back to the 1860s!!!!" and we're in europe are like ok calm down that's not really old😂
The are older than any European call boxes. Thet werw invented by Americans and you europeans didn't get them until the 1920s
1:10 I live in St. Louis and never knew my city had fire and police boxes until now.
James and the giant peach taught me what these were
We use to have those call boxes in Los Angeles back in the 40s and 50s. When peace officers use to walk their beats, beat-cops, they would contact HQ to communicate any necessary updates.
I think putting them back into service would have been fantastic. Imagine how historic that would have been, an actual working system. We let too much of our history escape us.
I remember it from playing LA Noire
I wish the today's world was so simple and artistic like it was in those days.
sometimes i really want to explore abandoned places but then i remember that i sprint out of rooms after i turn the lights off😩
I've gotten a good look at these boxes while in D.C. Cause the traffic never moves...
We need these back
Boston still has ours!
I’m kinda mad that these people turned them into art, because using them for hurricanes and Earthquakes makes sorting out emergencies in those situations much more easier
lol I've see these everyday for like my whole life, and I figured out what they were back when I was younger, but didn't know why they weren't removed. They looked ugly and were annoying to walk around, but that's changed and now they look nice and can sometimes tell a story of neighborhood. It's good that something was done with them instead of just leaving them.
That was an actually really cool video! Thanks, Vox!
The phone box in Top cat makes so much sense now
marvellous. you really learn new things every day. thanks Vox!
Glad they turned it into art and that some cities still use them with a telegraph
Two videos about Washington DC in two days, interesting
Matthew Bacchus lol noticed that too😂
Vox's headquarters is in DC, with a secondary office in NY and I think two other cities. It's just a simple video they made from home is all.
This does seem like something that a small team made in a day or two, and the credits only list three people who worked on it.
I have been to DC like a million times and i never noticed any of these
And in places where public phones one existed on the street I've seen them turned into art projects here in Providence, RI.
I'm from NWPA, and we have two of these in my city
My city still has a couple boxes around major buildings. Of course, they’ve been disconnected, but the remains were still there. Each box had a code for the station closest to it, kind of like a coordinate system. Say the box I pulled was #6. The nearest station’s horn would blow 6 times as soon as it was pulled. It was pretty neat. There’s still a box on the wall outside the main entrance to the high school where I go to now, as well as one outside a telephone pole at the middle school in the heart of the city. I’ve seen a few on telephone poles in neighborhoods, outside a few churches, and there used to be one in one of the parks in the city, but someone just recently took it out. They are cool little bits of history that have been forgotten in a dying coal town. I wish the city did more to protect them, but they can easily be vandalized.
POLICE TELEPHONE BOX??
You mean: tardis
Esther Parker yeah!!
We should bring back these boxes in some updated and mordern form (alongside 911, obviously.)
It seems like in certain situations they could be really convenient and maybe even save lives by reducing response times, since instead of having the chain that goes from a 911 operator to the firehouse or police station and the complexity of figuring out an address over low-quality telephone audio, a person in danger could just pull a lever and instantaneously the proper service will see exactly where they need to go on a screen.
those look so rad!
We have these in NYC too
Anyone remember from the Zodiac movie? (the one with Jake Ghynhall in it).. the movie set around like 70s i think and there is one scene that the police officer use Police Box. My question is, does the Police Box still exist in the late 60s-70s?
In my country they still have these on the Autobahn and in tunnels I think
I'm sorry but I think that the british police call boxes were much better, you could call for help, and if you managed to stop let's say a thief, you could actually lock him inside before the police came so that you wouldn't have to hold for all that time... Not to mention that if you were lucky, you could have found one that can travel through time and space :D
My grandfather made one with golf balls floating in gel. It's pretty cool.
These are in New York as well. I remember there was one outside of my elementary school and to this day I always wondered what would happen if I press it, and I found out they no longer work. So I am sad. I mean that is literally a walk through a park to get to it and I could get my phone if there was an emergency which is always with me.
This is actually the most interesting thing I learned today. Pretty cool.
Wait 9-1-1 wasn't invented until the 70s?
Eric Lugo 50s. The call boxes were discontinued in the 70s
no, before the 70s, you would call up your phone operator and tell them to put you through to the emergency services, thiis took up to 20 mins if your operator was quite busy and is why 911 was invented, to by-pass this and respond in a timely manner to emergencies.
Depends. Winnipeg got 999 in the late 1950s and later switched to 911. Huntsville, Alabama, got the first true 911 system in the 1960s. Some places didn’t have it until the 1990s. Until then, you either called a normal 7-digit number for whoever dispatched your local emergency services or called your operator for help.
They have a ton of these in NYC
That is a really smart a clever idea, damn.
Well there are actually lots of these in Brooklyn that still works!
Funny, in new zealand or at least the city that i live in, people have painted on the electrical transformers on the sides of the roads. And some of them look really cool.
The concept of using waypoints like police boxes to track a roaming workforce isn't obsolete. In some cities the US Postal Service installs small barcodes along their postal routes. Postal workers must scan these within a small time window to insure they cover their entire area in the time recommended.