Birminghenge
Birminghenge is the phenomenon visible within the Birmingham city center street grid when the setting sun is precisely aligned with Birmingham's east-west avenues. Its name, coined by Bhamwiki editor Mark Taylor, pays homage to Stonehenge, the prehistoric monument in England, where sunset on the winter solstice is aligned with its stones to mark the shortest day of the year. A similar phenomenon has been celebrated in other cities with regular downtown street grids, such as New York and Chicago, but Birmingham is unique amongst all such cities in that, like at Stonehenge, the event occurs precisely on the winter solstice.
Details
Birmingham's avenues, laid out in the 19th century by William Barker parallel to the route of the first railroad running through Jones Valley, the Northeast & Southwest Railroad, are rotated approximately 29-30° counterclockwise from due west, i.e. 240-241°. Whether purely by chance, or by Barker's design, this precisely aligns with the azimuth of the sun just before it begins to set over Birmingham on the winter solstice (usually December 21), and for about a week before and after that date, at approximately 4:30pm Central Standard Time.
External links
- Winter solstice on Wikipedia
- Manhattanhenge on Wikipedia