Magnetic Hill & Newport, Rhode Island
Here are two fun, random slide scans for you! Starting with this 1969 photo of several cars preparing to experience an incredible gravitational anomaly known as MAGNETIC HILL! There are a number of Magnetic Hills around the world, and I wasn't sure which one was pictured here.
The closest car's purple license plate might be a clue. Illinois! But I could find no Magnetic Hill in the Land of Lincoln.
Luckily, it didn't take too long to discover that it is located in New Brunswick, Canada (waaaay to the east, just north of Maine). The Magnetic Hill is a Canadian gravity hill, a type of optical illusion created by rising and descending terrain. It is located at the northwestern edge of the city of Moncton in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. The general area is at the base of a ridge named "Lutes Mountain", which rises several hundred feet above the surrounding Petitcodiac River valley.
There are many vintage postcards featuring the Magnetic Hill, I included three. It should be enough!
Next is this picturesque view of a street (dated "November 22, 1970"). But which street? Luckily this one had "Thames Street" written on the cardboard mount. After a brief search, which included looking up "Burke's", I discovered that this is Newport, Rhode Island.
There was an online list of businesses along Thames Street that included a mention of Burke's, which was mighty helpful.
It appears that a block or two or buildings was torn down at some point, resulting in that nice green park to the right. Or perhaps I am mistaken? I don't think so, but perhaps one of you Junior Gorillas will come up with another explanation.
I'm still away from home, but as always there will be new posts for you every day. I'll talk to you soon!
3 comments:
Major-
I wonder if Magnetic Springs bottled water is any relation to Magnetic Hill-? I see there were two locations for these magnetic springs: Saginaw, Michigan and Hollywood, California - "From the hills of Hollywood"-! I'm well-acquainted with the Hollywood variety, as it seemed to populate MGM Studios in the late 1960's and early 70's. (And can be spied [on set] in some Hollywood films...) I can say from personal experience, it's the worst bottled water I ever tasted, perhaps due to the fact they failed to remove the "magnets" prior to bottling it.
Thanks, Major.
I wonder if the principles behind "Magnetic Hill" is the same as the Haunted Shack at Knott's or in the town of Calico? After all, the hosts used to demonstrate with billiard balls running "up" a slanted pool table.
Newport looks like a nice quaint little town. I hope they didn't tear down any of those buildings, even if it was for a park.
Thanks, Major!
Sooo, I'm guessing that, when traveling along the "Magnetic Hill" road, you get to what appears to be the bottom of the hill, except it really isn't the bottom, it just looks that way because of the tilting, slanting landscape. When you turn off your car's engine, it looks like you're rolling uphill, but you're really continuing to roll downhill. Is that what this is about?
I'm surprised Walter Knott didn't dig up this whole area and plop it into Knott's Berry Farm right next to the Haunted Shack!
Newport, RI: I can't tell if the current Street View pic is the same location as the 1970 pic. Same street, but same location along that street? If so, it looks like another big example of TRE! I hope those quaint and wonderful buildings from the 1970 pic are still there.
Nanook, the best way to tell if Magnetic Springs water is from the Magnetic Hill area is to: 1) Set the bottle of water on a table. 2) remove the cap from the bottle. 3) See if the water starts flowing out of the top of the bottle.
I see Tokyo! had the same notion as me regarding the Magnetic Hill.
Wow, we traveled all the way to New Brunswick, Canada on this Anything Goes Saturday! Thank you, Major.
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