Las Vegas – Las Vegas Sign

I may not have yet been entirely successful in my hunt for my photos of San Francisco, but I’ve found another tranche of photos from Las Vegas that I’d forgotten about.

The Las Vegas sign, located at the southern end of Las Vegas, near McCarran Airport. On this point, I’m aware that most of Las Vegas isn’t in Las Vegas, it’s in the unincorporated town of Paradise, but that’s for another post. This sign has been here since 1959 and it was designed by Betty Willis (1923-2015) who didn’t copyright the sign and instead gave it to the city.

As the decades went by, this sign became more iconic and more tourists wanted to look at it. This was a problem, as the sign was in the middle of a road and if I’m being honest, the Americans do sometimes forget about pedestrians in their pursuit of new roads to build. But, in 2008 the authorities thought something should be done and they made it easier to get to the sign with the installation of a traffic crossing and a nearby bus stop. This made it even more popular and it has now become a safe site to visit for tourists, and many of them do.

The reverse of the sign.

I always look awkward in photos, it’s better when I stand much further away and even better when I stand the other side of the camera.

The sign is visible early on in this video from the 1960s.