Comments on: Manhole Sewer Art

Manhole Sewer Art

greasy_skillet — Sat, 14 May 2005 19:12:54 -0800

Manhole Cover Photography. Photos of manhole covers from around the world.

By: mmahaffie

mmahaffie — Sat, 14 May 2005 19:21:42 -0800

Art is where you find it. Nice post!

By: pieisexactlythree

pieisexactlythree — Sat, 14 May 2005 19:24:18 -0800

Too bad there's no pictures for Italy. When in Rome (and trying my hardest to do as the Romans were doing), I was rather amused to discover that the city's public works department had anachronistically stamped all the manholes and utility boxes with "SPQR"

By: hades

hades — Sat, 14 May 2005 19:30:10 -0800

There are some SPQR covers at Drainspotting (previously mentioned on MeFi a couple of years ago). Also, a bunch of links to other manhole cover sites.

By: mediareport

mediareport — Sat, 14 May 2005 19:33:25 -0800

I love this kind of thing. *deletes rest of comment on previewing hades' comment*

By: warbaby

warbaby — Sat, 14 May 2005 19:51:27 -0800

In case you weren't a classics major, here's an explanation of SPQR

By: DeepFriedTwinkies

DeepFriedTwinkies — Sat, 14 May 2005 20:13:43 -0800

Very nice find greasy. Thanks for sharing.

By: Gamblor

Gamblor — Sat, 14 May 2005 20:15:37 -0800

There was a bar here in NYC here called "The Manhole", but it had surprisingly little to do with the city's water treatment system. I won't make that mistake twice.

By: santiagogo

santiagogo — Sat, 14 May 2005 20:33:49 -0800

As a storm sewer designer, I will win double-plus points for this link when I share it at work. Danke!

By: bobo123

bobo123 — Sat, 14 May 2005 20:38:45 -0800

Japan has quite a variety of manhole covers, here is an extensive listing, the "best" are featured here. Via an old gmtplus9 post I read years ago.

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Sat, 14 May 2005 21:01:46 -0800

bobo123: Some of these are great! For instance I really liked the one that said 'all you need is Kobe', but my absolute favorite is this one which seems to be saying: Don't go down in the sewers or you will be mauled by a hippopotamus! (Makes me think of Life of Pi)

By: papakwanz

papakwanz — Sat, 14 May 2005 21:58:29 -0800

Glad this isn't the NSFW Manhole Covers webpage.

By: jeremy b

jeremy b — Sat, 14 May 2005 23:21:00 -0800

why are they round?

By: Turtles all the way down

Turtles all the way down — Sat, 14 May 2005 23:38:41 -0800

why are they round? I can think of two reasons: 1. So you can roll them. 2. You can't drop a round manhole cover down the hole, but you can drop a square one. (And I note with surprise a square manhole cover on one of the linked pages!)

By: dhruva

dhruva — Sun, 15 May 2005 00:21:24 -0800

Ah but don't forget the Triangular ones.

By: TheOnlyCoolTim

TheOnlyCoolTim — Sun, 15 May 2005 01:04:56 -0800

They have "In Direct Line With Another & The Next" from NYC, but they disappointed me by not having the one from Astor place that has a mid-19th century date stamped on it, and is still covering whatever it covers even though I bet no one knows what's down there anymore.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Sun, 15 May 2005 01:59:56 -0800

why are they round? Turtle's 2nd explanation is the one.

By: taz

taz — Sun, 15 May 2005 04:01:04 -0800

I wanted to see the manhole covers of India, but so far this site doesn't list any. However, doing a search turned up this interesting tidbit of information: The vast majority of manhole covers in New York City are from India.

By: dhruva

dhruva — Sun, 15 May 2005 05:20:08 -0800

Manhole covers in India are usually round, made of concrete and frequently tarred over by the road, so that when something goes wrong they have to dig up the road :)

By: bendybendy

bendybendy — Sun, 15 May 2005 05:25:37 -0800

dhruva. I grew up around Nashua. I had no idea it has such an amazing claim to fame. I didn't even notice the triangular manholes.

By: j.p. Hung

j.p. Hung — Sun, 15 May 2005 06:55:43 -0800

I've done a lot of advertising and collateral work for a company in France that makes manhole covers. I'm amazed at the amount of work and technology that goes into designing one of these things - not to mention the variety. Good post.

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Sun, 15 May 2005 08:30:22 -0800

These animate well. A shamefully long time ago I was impressed by a very creative film at the Vancouver School of Art (anyone remember that?) that consisted of a few frames each of hundreds of manhole covers. The circular shape remained fairly constant, while the center danced with patterns.

By: drezdn

drezdn — Sun, 15 May 2005 09:52:15 -0800

A lot of the US's planer manhole covers are made in Neenah Wisconsin, and when ever I was far from home, for some reason seeing that on the manholes made me a little bit warmer inside. And it's ironic because Neenah is pretty close to Wisconsin's manhole.

By: PossumCowboy

PossumCowboy — Sun, 15 May 2005 15:03:11 -0800

lol at Gamblor...glad things turned out ok!