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A foghorn on the south side tower of the Golden Gate Bridge looks out onto the water. Brittany Hosea-Small/KQED
A foghorn on the south side tower of the Golden Gate Bridge looks out onto the water. (Brittany Hosea-Small/KQED)

Ode to the Foghorn: The Sound of the Sea

Ode to the Foghorn: The Sound of the Sea

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San Francisco residents Andy MacKinnon and Jen Liu live in the Sunset District near Ocean Beach.

From their apartment, MacKinnon says, "We can see the fog rolling in off the ocean and creeping up the street until our house is completely engulfed by fog. And shortly after that happens, we start hearing foghorns."

MacKinnon and Liu have a boatload of questions about the sounds that help vessels navigate safely through the water. They want to know:

Where are these foghorns?
How many of them are there?
Why do we still use them despite technologies like radar and GPS?
Who or what turns them on?

For those answers, hit that listen button at the top of this post, or read Foghorns: Who Presses The Play Button?

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