A similar device is to be found in the Belt Railway logo, which can be seen at one point along the westbound Eisenhower. It’s also online at http://www.beltrailway.com/. The Belt’s summer 2001 newsletter (http://www.beltrailway.com/newsletters/BeltSummer01.pdf) says “[The railway] was shaped like an inverted Y with its top at Dearborn Station. One leg went south to Dolton, Ill., where a connection was made with the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad. The other leg went to State Line Tower on the Indiana line near Hammond, where the Erie Lackawanna and Monon connected”. (No explanation of why the Y in the logo is not inverted.)
Old CTA tokens also had a design with a three perforations that was somewhat Y-like, but not the same thing. Still it seems the circle Y sign lurks in other Chicago locations. (Mich. Ave. bridge, maybe?)
Nice citation, that. Not very clear to my old sunburned eyes how the Chicago River looks like a Y, however. It might be more like a lazy T, depending on your leaning, but that would neglect a lot of complications within and without the city. So I suspect the Chicago River thing is just a cover story.
FWIW, I’ve always assumed it was the Chicago River, without any outside sources to back it up. Seems like an obvious representation of the two branches.
I don’t think it’s a cover story at all.
The 4th Panzer Division’s symbol is a runic symbol, Elhaz, which represents protection or defense.
The Peace Symbol started as a Nuclear Disarmament symbol, and is usually described as representing a stylized fusion the semaphore codes for “N” and “D”, bounded by a circle.
While it is certainly tempting to make connections between the concepts behind these various similar symbols, I think it’s best to say that they were developed entirely independently.
Unless of course, we want to go all-over Jungian, in which case we should drink more beer and take it over to GD.
Ah yes, a google on ‘peace symbol rune’ kicks up a lot of stuff from the tinfoil hat crowd and maybe some serious stuff as well. “Todesrune”, and so on.
I just happened to notice that “Reminiscences of Early Chicago” by E. O. Gale, published in 1902, bear the “municipal device” on its spine…only inverted this time. No explanation in the text that I recall. Been sitting there on the bookshelf all this time. Cue the twilight zone music.
Since the Y in the marquee has a C superimposed directly over it, I always assumed it stood for Yes, Cecil. A discreet nod by the city fathers to an illustrious native son…
