Denver, Colorado: Plaque: First Walk Signal

Traffic engineer Henry Barnes' invention debuted at this street corner in 1952.

The "Barnes Dance" nickname was specifically applied to corners that allowed diagonal crossing of the intersection (i.e. the shortest distance between two points is a straight line) as well as the much more common corner-to-nearest-corner crossing. Denverites became accustomed to this but it was baffling to new residents and out-of-towners. The Barnes Dance crossings were removed from downtown intersections decades later as light rail tracks, city busses, mall shuttles, and bicycle lanes were carved into the downtown streets.