To commemorate this week's Taste of Chicago celebration, here's a Google Maps satellite image of the world's United States' most famous fountain: Buckingham Fountain. We've all seen images and video of ol' Bucky countless times, but seeing an aerial view is quite unique.
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From an IM converstation a few nights ago with my brother:
yikesmoose: did you know that buckingham fountain has its own mailing address?
spudart: yes yikesmoose: !
spudart: it also generates about $200 in change a year
BOO YAH! yikesmoose: that's it?
200 bucks?
spudart: where did i read that?
i just read that recently
i think it was in time out chicago yikesmoose: so I can go over to buckingham fountain with 200 pennies, dump 'em in there, and then say that I contributed 1% of their annual income?
that's seems sad for one of the world's most popular fountains. Lemme correct that. that seems sad for the world's most popular fountain. Tell me of a fountain that's more famous that Buckingham Fountain.
spudart: that's what the article was about
how it's sad that we don't compare to the world yikesmoose: i think there's some city worker who is pocketing like 90% of what goes into Buckingham Fountain
spudart: yup yikesmoose: I can picture it now. Time Out Chicago goes to interview the Buckingham Fountain people. They ask how much money comes out of the fountain annually. The response is "$200" only because the guy that collects it doesn't want people to know he's pocketing thousands of dollars.
That's totally Chicago.
A couple of thougths on this post. First, I don't know that you can classify Buckingham fountain as the world's most popular fountain. Sure, it's kind of a Chicago landmark but how many people outside of Chicago could identify it.
If you're looking for a more popular or famous fountain, Trevi Fountain in Rome is older and far more famous. It's a big tourist draw in a city full of historic attractions (Collosseum, Forum, Vatican, Piazzas, Pantheon, etc.)
Anyway, according to wikipedia 3,000 Euros are thrown into Trevi Fountain every day. That amounts to nearly $4,214 (U.S.) per day. So, Trevi generates as much money in just over an hour than Buckingham generates in an entire year.
Posted by: Mark R on Jul 02, 09 | 8:17 am
bah. you can keep your Caesar's Palace Las V-egas fountain.
I bet more tourists would throw money in the fountain if one could still cross Lake Shore Drive right across from the fountain.
I love how people look like little specks or ants in the google aerial image. :-)
Posted by: kris on Jul 02, 09 | 8:35 am
After careful consideration of Mark's comment, I decided to officially change Buckingham Fountain's status of world's most famous fountain to the United State's most famous fountain. My knowledge of world fountains is clearly lacking. I'll be especially sad if someone tells me there's a fountain in the U.S. with higher status than ol' Bucky.
Where did the fountain go? Interesting how the different levels in the fountain is green. It barely looks like that all the green is actually standing water.
Notice which one is first on the list. You know it! Also, the only other american fountain on this list is Swann Memorial Fountain in Philadelphia. "During warm months, swimming in the fountain is a long-standing Philadelphia tradition. In the summer of 2006, the City of Philadelphia began enforcing a swimming ban with a near constant security presence. This presence will taper off and disappear completely by 2009."
SWIMMING in the fountain? Please. That's not world-class. Swann Fountain, you are off the list.
While having this blog post up, I taped a penny to my screen where the fountain was showing. Virtual penny tossing! Check out the photo at: http://twitter.com/spudart/status/2441203473
Just wanna pass along a "shout out" to my 25-year-old nephew, Matt Lacey, for being the top overall male finisher and placing 1st in the June 28th Taste Of Chicago 5K run. He took top prize by running it in 16:07. Way to go, Matt! I can't even drive 5K in just over 16 minutes. Okay, maybe I can.
Posted by: IKEMAN on Jul 03, 09 | 4:54 am
That's incredible, Ikeman! Congrats to your nephew.
