Rising sun creates 'Raleigh-henge'
A Stonehenge-like phenomenon happens when the sun rises just a bit north of due east nicely between the buildings and shines straight down the east/west running streets.
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This happens in other cities where streets are laid out in a grid pattern. In Manhattan, this happens in late May. A long corridor running through several buildings at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has a similar solar phenomenon dubbed MIT-henge, next expected in November.
This is all in fun and gave photographer John West a good excuse to capture beautiful images of the rising sun over Martin and Hargett streets downtown. Looking at all of this does bring some questions:
Why are Raleigh streets canted slightly from due east-west (90º)? Did the original hills and valleys of early Raleigh work better in this layout or were city planners of the time just a little off?
If any future civilizations study Raleigh the way we study Stonehenge, trying to match up measurements with what they might mean, they might also wonder: What is so special about March 14? Why did Raleigh align their streets this way?
Perhaps they'll assume Raleigh residents organized their calendars around the start of the ACC Tournament.
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