You’ve probably heard of Stonehenge, but did you know there’s something called Torontohenge, the artificial name for the times when the sunrise or sunset is aligned with the streets of Toronto? Toronto’s version has little to do with the prehistoric monument of archeological significance but it is an exceptional event that happens when many of the city streets are aligned by the sun, around February 16-17, April 17-18, August 23-24 and October 23-25.
It offers city folks a chance to experience a magnificent sunset. I observed it a number of times when living in Toronto. A few times driving westward this golden hue distracted me with its bright sunlight, enough to run a red light once (no accident). But the February Torontohenge – with sunset before 6 p.m. and winter grime on windshields blinding drivers – is a different story. It has an average of 172 property-damage accidents, the highest number until mid-December. “We’re still fascinated by the movements of the heavens,” said Ryan Marciniak, an Astronomer with the Ontario Science Centre. “When you live in a big city, you don’t get to see many sunsets unless you’re living really high up in a condo.”
It’s more expedient if you’re a pedestrian or a streetcar rider in the downtown core. The Walrus magazine invites local photographers to submit their best photos of a Torontohenge effect. Winners are published in their magazine and receive gift bags. Toronto’s city grid, where streets are largely aligned going north-south and east-west, lends itself perfectly to this phenomenon, but it’s certainly not only the only cityscape that does. This kind of ‘henge’ with the same phenomenon happens in other cities that have a uniform street grid and an unobstructed view of the horizon.
New York’s Manhattanhenge falls on a different date than Toronto’s. I first heard of Manhattanhenge-sometimes referred to as the Manhattan Solstice, when my partner and I took a bus tour to Manhattan about six years ago, to savour the attractions. It was during breakfast when someone described this event to us and how the setting sun aligned with the east–west streets of the main street grid of Manhattan. In a glowing magic trick, rays of sunshine would span across the city perfectly, from west to east. Astrophysicist Neil Tyson, who officially discovered this marvel and said “Manhattan may just be a unique urban phenomenon of the world: Other world cities are less than ideal for this purpose.” Manhattanhenge occurs twice a year on dates evenly spaced around the summer and winter solstice. The winter one is harder to spot because of weather conditions. Some streets that shine best provide incredible views of the Empire State building and the Chrysler building for example.
At Stonehenge, the megalithic monument in southern England with large stone blocks set out in concentric circles, the sun crosses the sites central axis during the winter and summer solstices, leaving speculation that the structure could have been used as a sun dial or for religious ceremonies.
The forward-thinking architects designing the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes in the UK discovered its main street almost framed the rising sun on the midsummer day and setting sun on the midwinter day. They consulted Greenwich Observatory to obtain the exact angle required at their latitude, and then persuaded their engineers to shift the grid of roads a few degrees for true alignment.
In movie culture, Manhattanhenge was the title and a major plot element of the episode of ‘CSI-NY’ that originally aired on November 25, 2009. Also, the closing scene from the film ‘Morning Glory’ featured Harrison Ford and Rachel McAdams walking off into a Manhattanhenge sunset.
What will future civilizations think of Manhattan Island when they dig it up and find a carefully laid out network of streets and avenues? Surely the grid would be presumed to have astronomical significance, just as the pre-historic circle of large vertical rocks known as Stonehenge, when the sun rises in perfect alignment with the stones. For Manhattan, a place where evening matters more than morning, it too is a beautiful sight.
