Even New York City locals have no clue. Four different friends have asked me if I knew that the numbers stood four. I’ve asked at least three.
Then one day, I decided to just Google it. Turns out, the answer is pretty boring.
It’s a clock. The Union Square Metronome, which was installed in 1999, has become sort of a mystery over time. Ask a random pool of people on the streets and you will hear a bunch of different explanations for what the numbers could stand for.
The most popular explanation I’ve come across is that the 15 numbers represent the current amount of national debt. Apparently, as stated by The Times, it is also believed to be the amount of daily carbon missions or the seconds until the end of the world.
In actuality, the 15 numbers display time going and coming relative to midnight. According to Kristen Jones, the designer of the clock, “if the clock reads 070437000235616, it means that it is 7:04 A.M.”
Reading the numbers starting from the right, however, will give you the time until midnight. So again, if the clock reads 070437000235616, that means there are 16 hours, 56 minutes and 23 seconds remaining until 12 am. The rest of the digits in between are simply moving numbers.
