Visit to Vulcan

Saturday after Matt picked up his race packet we ventured out to sight see a little. One of Birmingham's famous sites is the VULCAN on Red Mountain. Just in case you didn't know Vulcan is the Roman god of fire and forge. The statue is 56 feet tall on a 124 foot pedestal. He was built for the 1904 Expo as Birmingham's contribution. He was returned to Birmingham and eventually placed on the Mountain. In 1946 his spear was removed and replaced with a torch that would burn green as long as no traffic fatality, if there was a traffic fatality the light would glow red for 24 hours. In 1999 when the statue was renovated the torch was removed and the spear replaced (not the same one, they lost the original spear Tell me how do you lose a huge spear?) We walked around the grounds and took in the view.