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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Visiting each of the 11 remaining giant, concrete arrows left in the state that once helped guide pilots delivering mail across the country has become the mission of one Utah couple.
The federal government built hundreds of the arrows nationwide in the 1920s to provide guidance at night. Each arrow had a 50-foot (15.2-meter) tower built in the middle of the arrow with a spotlight shining on it so pilots could clearly see it from the air, KSL-TV reported .
Each arrow was around 70 feet (21.3 meters) long and pointed to the next one about 10 miles (16.1 kilometers) away.
Ken and Brenda Gallacher, who have already visited more than 670 towns across Utah, are traveling to Washington, Tooele, Davis and Box Elder counties to locate the arrows.
"Back in the 1920s, aircraft were still relatively new, but pilots could only fly during the daytime hours where they could navigate by the geography and landmarks," said Ken Gallacher, Utah State history board member.
The U.S. government began construction of the lighted airways in 1923 and completed the first transcontinental route from New York to San Francisco in 1929, according to the Federal Aviation Administration's website.
"What made this so unique is that before that time, it took three weeks to get a letter from New York City to Los Angeles and once these arrows were completed with overnight flights, it now took only 30 hours to get a letter from New York to Los Angeles with overnight flight mail," Ken Gallacher said.
During World War II, the towers were taken down to reuse the metal in the war effort, according to Gallacher. Some of the arrows were also purposely destroyed in case enemy planes tried to use them to navigate across the country.
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Information from: KSL-TV, http://www.ksl.com/
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