Cry to Save Classic Foghorns Finds San Francisco All Ears

This is a city that takes nostalgia seriously--where Victorian houses are meticulously cared for and freeways are knocked down to restore waterfront views.

So it was with great relief last week that San Francisco averted a civic tragedy even more serious than losing the Giants to Florida.

The city saved its foghorns.

Not just any foghorns. These were the mellifluous, deep-toned signals that once resonated across San Francisco Bay whenever fog rolled through the Golden Gate.

In the name of progress earlier this month, Coast Guard technicians sailed out to Alcatraz and unplugged the last of their aging, romanticized foghorns. They installed a signal with a high-pitched electronic beep that is about as soothing as a car alarm.

Longtime residents who found the old sound comforting came unglued. Civic leaders pledged to win back the horns. The Board of Supervisors passed a resolution.

After three weeks and countless phone calls, the Coast Guard agreed on a compromise that would allow a nonprofit group, the U.S. Lighthouse Society, to operate two or three of the old-time foghorns--as long as the group pays the cost.