10 Lost Symbols of New York

In a city that considers jaywalking a birthright, the flashing Walk/Don’t Walk signs on street corners never made much sense in the first place. Especially if you couldn’t read English. Nonetheless, the signs guided New Yorkers (or at least made helpful suggestions) from the late 1950s until 2004, when the city replaced them with pictograms—a white pedestrian for “Walk” and a red hand for “Don’t Walk.” Typically, not everyone loves the new signs—some New Yorkers have been known to black out a few of the hand’s fingers with electrical tape until just one is saluting.