Here’s a challenge for you: if you have a moment, throw on a coat and run outside and see if you can find all 327,000 or so traffic lights in America. If you have a little extra time and a bit of petty cash, you could also try and see the 100 to 150 million traffic lights across the globe. Maybe take some pictures or keep a notebook so you can jot down anything interesting about the ones you see. Now, did you notice anything interesting? I bet you did. And I bet what you noticed was that, aside from a few outlier horizontally-oriented traffic signals, all those lights were oriented the same way: with red on top, green on the bottom, and some manner of yellow/amber in the middle.
Well, all are like that except for one place: the traffic lights at one particular intersection of one particular neighborhood in Syracuse, New York.
That neighborhood is called Tipperary Hill, and the intersection where the upside-down traffic light hangs (Tompkins St. and Milton Ave.) may also be the only intersection in the world that features a memorial with bronze statues commemorating vandalism to traffic lights. I guess I should explain what’s going on here.
Tipperary Hill is a very Irish neighborhood, with a long history of Irish immigrants who came and formed a tight-knit community, proud of their Irish heritage, a heritage that included a good dose of anti-British sentiment. As the population of the city grew, traffic became more complex, so a traffic signal was installed at an intersection in the middle of Tipperary Hill in 1925.
This was fairly early in the history of traffic lights, with the first three-color (red, yellow, green) traffic light having been invented by Detroit traffic officer William Potts in 1920. Interestingly, this early traffic light had four sides, and two of those sides had green on top, and two had red on top:
Unfortunately for the people of Tipperary Hill, though, by 1925 traffic lights had standardized on an order that placed red on top, then yellow, then green at the bottom, and this was how the traffic light at Tipperary Hill was installed.
For many of the people of Tipp Hill, this wasn’t acceptable. The colors of those lights were leaden with far too much symbolic meaning for people, with green being the traditional color of the Irish, and red associated with the British. After their experiences and differences with the British across the sea, many Irish Tipp Hillians could not abide seeing their beloved green literally beneath the red they associated with the British.
Some versions of the story suggest that City Alderman John “Huckle” Ryan requested that the green light be oriented on the top at the beginning, but then the state of New York made them reverse it to match the standard; other retellings say it went up initially with red on top. Either way, the displeasure at the red-topped light was soon expressed very dramatically thanks to a group of boys known as the “Stone Throwers” who, as you may have guessed, chucked stones at the light, smashing the bulbs and requiring that the light be repaired.
Over and over again, day after day, the city would fix the lights, and the Stone Throwers would smash them. The light was removed for a while to let things calm down, but upon its re-installation, boom, it was smashed again.
Eventually, on St.Patrick’s Day 1928, the city relented and agreed to install the traffic light upside-down, with green above red, and it’s stayed that way ever since. The light seems to be the only upside-down traffic light in America, and possibly the world, though I can’t really confirm that.
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A memorial was built in 1997 featuring a bronze statue of an Irish family pointing at the stoplight, commemorating the Stone Throwers and their dogged vandalism of the traffic light. It may be the only municipal monument to an act of vandalism of a piece of city property in the world, too?
Here’s how the website for the monument describes the meaning of the memorial:
In the years 1919-1921, the Irish were fighting their war of independence. Many Irish were killed by British officers during this war. Despite the war being over for four years, there were still left over feelings of resentment towards the British. In Syracuse, New York 1925, there was a group of Irish boys nicknamed the “Stone Throwers” who became infamous for refusing to allow the green light to hang below the red light on a new traffic light at the intersection of Tompkins and Milton Avenues. The boys included Jocko Behan, Richie Britt, James “Duke” Coffee, Patrick “Packy” Corbett, Kenny Davis, George Dorsey, Mikis Murphy, Stubbs Shortt, and Eugene Thompson (Syracuse Parks Conservatory 2023). According to George Dorsey’s wife Mary Dorsey, the boys were nicknamed the “Stone Throwers” because the boys would stand outside a Tipp Hill corner store, seething at this light with green on the bottom. When the coast was clear, they would throw stones at the light (Kirst 2016,193) smashing the red light. After repeatedly refitting the broken glass, the city of Syracuse permanently hung the green light over the red (Syracuse Parks Conservatory 2023). To the Irish community, the green light hung above the red light symbolizes Irish identity, pride and independence from the British.
The Stone Throwers were formally pardoned in 1987, so if anyone reading this was part of that group of hooligans, it’s safe to venture out into public again.
The neighborhood’s dwellers are very proud of its history of defiance and abuse of traffic lights, as you can see in this video:
The light has become a sort of symbol of the neighborhood, and a bit of a tourist draw. I suspect the traffic light isn’t the sole reason people venture out there – the high density of charming pubs in the area is likely a more valid reason – but it certainly doesn’t hurt.
I’ve yet to find any data suggesting that this intersection has more accidents than ones with traffic lights in the expected orientation; I suspect if you’re there, you know what’s up, and you’re ready for the change.
I also guess if you there and know what’s up, you’re pretty happy to see that green on top as well.
Top graphic images: City of Syracuse; The Clio
Kinda disappointed the statue doesn’t include a kid winding up with rock in hand
I would’ve blamed the Irish anyway. Im kidding laddie! Just kidding.
How about blue Japanese traffic lights, or south African robots?
My mom’s family is from the Syracuse area and my parents met there while my dad was living and working in the area, so I’ve seen this many times and known about it my whole life. The thing I’ve always wondered about is what happens when seriously red/green colorblind people drive by? Apparently it hasn’t been an issue, but I’ve been worried or thinking about it ever since I first learned about color blindness and no one has given me a satisfactory answer.
I would assume they would have the same issue at horizontal lights. But, as long as there are other cars on the road it should be fairly easy to figure out and just follow the flow of traffic.
Horizontal lights are standardized too though.
“…run outside and see if you can find all 327,000 or so traffic lights in America.”
Pffth, I bet I find half of those on my commute into Atlanta. All of them red somehow.
Seems like a roundabout solution.
Neat story! I have been to Syracuse a few times for work, next time I will have to seek out this intersection just so I can say I have seen it.
There can be only one!
Of course this post would be a week late for St Partick’s Day; they don’t call it Murphy’s Law for nothing
St Patrick is, of course, British and not Irish.
Right, right, the Irish knew him as Pádraig. Just like the Greek/Roman names.
Okay did Jason just miss the pot o gold in his lucky charms cereal that is the original traffic light? With one side being red yellow green and the other green yellow red you just need one bulb for each level. The top light comes on and you symotaniously light the red in 2 directions as well as the green. On the 2nd level all yellows are lit at the same time and the 3rd level the opposite greens and yellow. It is a perfect analog traffic light no chance at errors from the wiring or later computer schedule lights. How was this not kept as the superior design?
Let he who is not a drunken idiot cast the first stone.
Rules me out.
This story is a week late, Jason!
Yet the Irish in Ireland seem perfectly OK with the red-amber-green arrangement.
Hey, you know this all took place in 1925 – 101 years ago…. Just checking.
I grew up in Syracuse, so when I saw the title I knew it was the light on Tip hill!
Okay now let’s be honest here. It is the Irish so most likely seeing the traffic light sideways from laying down drunk on the sidewalk so is it really green on top? LOL
Indeed. Just down the hill to Coleman’s. Ate and drank there many a time.
The tanker full of green beer is a red herring, rumor has it they strap a keg of the stuff to the spigot on the back. Bu that may just be propaganda.
The Irish in Tipp Hill do not allow herrings to be red.
Yeah but green herrings are an even harder sell.
I was born and raised just south of Syracuse, and now I’m all giddy it was mentioned!
Now I want some Beef on Weck. Can’t get it here in the Boston area.
“the high density of charming pubs in the area”
I’m not driving.
Good idea the road is full of drunk drivers and you decide to walk! May I ask for your thought process on this situation? JK
There’s gotta be at least one municipal monument on city property to the Boston Tea Party, right? Also, depending on how you stretch “vandalism,” there’s Stonewall, Haymarket, Blair Mountain, and countless others.
Any public memory of Stonewall is currently being retconned out of existence by the thought police, so that one will be coming off the list soon.
Which is crazy, because a former Republican congressman told me he was the main organizer of Stonewall. He seems a bit young, but I’m not going to impugn someone who lost his mother to both the Holocaust and 9/11, he’s been through enough
It’s the illuminati rage vampire shapeshifters obviously. They can look like whatever age they want and they reproduce asexually so they are everywhere.
They feed off anger so his story checks out 100%.
Interesting. Kinda sucks for a color blind out of towner though….
Charming story.
Today those immigrants would be branded terrorists and subject to T-dog’s death squads.
Traffic Direction Syndrome
Think bigger. It would be the pretext to round up anyone whose last name starts with O’
Like that dreadful O’Bama
Ha. Birther conspiracy 2.0.
This helps explain my Irish grandmother but as a good Belfaster she would have put the orange on top.
I’ve been lead to believe that might depend upon which neighborhood in Belfast…
Wearing the wrong colour in the wrong neighbourhood in Belfast (or bits of Glasgow) will result in a beating, and possibly worse
I worked with a guy from Northern Ireland years ago. He wore so much Orange on St Patty’s Day you would think he was Dutch. The rest of the year, he was just Irish, but on St Patty’s Day, he just couldn’t wear Green and came to work looking like a Traffic Barrel.
Grandmom made me promise to wear orange on St Patty’s (and if they pinch you, you slug’em!) so I still do but I spend the rest of the week wearing all the green I have. Funny thing is I’m the only one she asked to do this, she never mentioned it to any of my cousins. Either way I live in TX so nobody has any idea, they assume I’m representing whatever college team wears orange or something.
It looks like the upside downedness of the original lights may have resulted from there being just three bulbs – top, middle and bottom. So when the top bulb was lit the east west traffic flowed, and when the bottom bulb was lit the north south traffic flowed. Clever.
very clever! and I bet that’s exactly why.
I’m sure you’re familiar with why Irish-Americans eat corned beef on St. Patrick’s Day?
It’s cheap and if you boil it with cabbage it just tastes like cabbage? Just kidding I love my corned beef like any good polish guy
In Ireland ham’s the tradition, the Irish-Americans were in the same immigrant neighborhoods as Eastern European Azhkenazi Jews and there was some exchange of foodways.
I can get with that logic- kudos
You really want to mess with them? Put the amber signal on top.
This is the most Irish thing to ever Irish. Sláinte!
Now I want a black and tan after reading this.
I kind of want an Irish car bomb
The other drink you don’t want to order by that name in actual Ireland.
Ah, yes, the Royal Irish Constabulary. What could go wrong recruiting recruiting former soldiers from another country to brutally suppress the locals of Ireland.
Not sure why you’d want one yourself.
I’d rather settle for a half-and-half, myself, perhaps some Harp & Guinness.
I meant the beer Bass under Guinness.
In this case shouldn’t it be a tan and black?
Too many and will be followed by a black and white. I did not mention paddy wagon.
I sold traffic control equipment back in 1990.
I own an 8″ 3 head McCain R-A-G poly with ball cap visors. I think I will retreat to The Bolin Room and switch the R and G lense.
You may have just created a new St Patrick’s Day tradition!
Pour a Guinness out for the colorblind that don’t expect it (be an interesting test with “self-driving”)
I was behind a Tesla the other day (with the license plate “ON FSD”). We were on an on ramp and there was a crosswalk with a “Stop for pedestrians” sign, and on the sign was a little red hexagonal stop sign. Just as the Tesla got to that sign, it SLAMMED on the brakes and came to a complete stop. This was unexpected as we had been accelerating to merge, and it was raining, and I damn near rear ended it.
So, yeah, self drive gets confused. Would be interesting to see what it does with the upside down stop light.
It would be one of those Star Trek episodes where they use logic or ilogic to cause a computer to explode.
If only we were so lucky.
I am just a little colorblind and green lights look almost pale blueish to me. At a distance I cannot tell a green light from a streetlight until I am rather close. It is an issue.
I struggle with single flashing lights since it’s easy to know what light is lit based on position for normal traffic lights.
I ask my passengers if that’s a flashing yellow or red ahead and they all seem to get a little nervous.
And yet they apparently continue to let you drive.
How do you deal with the horizontal variety? Asking bc I couldn’t tell you which way they are oriented. But maybe folks in your situation memorize it?
I have to get close enough to see which one is lit up and assume red is the left most light.
Red and yellow are difficult for me to discern so I stare for a couple seconds and if it doesn’t change then it’s definitely red. But generally they go from red on the left to green on the right.
Ok so the next time the person in front of me comes to a full stop at a flashing yellow, I’ll breath deeply and tell myself they must be colorblind.
Possibly lol. If I truly can’t tell I’ll start looking at the intersection for stop signs and white lines as I get closer so there are other context clues. If they come to a full stop and not just slow down, then they are certified dumb.
Where do you live that has blue streetlights?
They look blue-ish to me as someone with red green color vision deficiency.
Same, I’m right there with you.