While walking back from my weekly ultimate frisbee game on the Esplanade, I noticed an odd sign suspended above Storrow Drive Westbound in Boston. The large road sign was hanging below a bridge and read "Reverse Curve." After thinking about it, I realized I had no idea what this meant.

Dictionary.com provides this illuminating definition: "Reverse curve (Railways), a curve like the letter S, formed of two curves bending in opposite directions."

Another one for road signs we do not understand.

Ah, the beloved, misunderstood, and revered Reverse Curve sign. It's about eight feet wide and a foot high, blends into the bridge it's attached to, and it's fairly faded. But ask just about anyone from Boston about it, and they know exactly where it is.

The best story about the Reverse Curve sign is that in mid-summer 1999, someone suspended themselves over the bridge long enough to change the 'v' in Curve to an 's', thus making the sign say "Reverse Curse". This was an attempt to spur the Red Sox to a World Series title and break the alleged Curse Of The Bambino.


SPECIAL BONUS FOOTAGE! The sign has repeatedly been replaced and subsequently vandalized (at an estimated cost of $150 per vandalization). Each time it is fixed, the government gets a flurry out phone calls from outraged Red Sox fans.

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