BROOKLYN — A foghorn-like sound blasted several times through Park Slope, Gowanus and Sunset Park at dawn on Tuesday, robbing some residents of sleep and leaving others puzzling over the source of the sonic assault.
Can't sleep due to FOG HORN????!!!??
— sugarpond (@sugarpond) May 12, 2015The ships by my house are going nuts with the fog horn.
— Paranormal Bass (@Paranormal_Bass) May 12, 2015
Thanks, foghorn(?), for waking me up… #Brooklyn
— Keith Williams (@TheWeeklyNabe) May 12, 2015
The weather at the time was a cloudy 68 degrees with 90 percent humidity, but no fog, according to AccuWeather.
The source of the din could be boats and barges on the Gowanus Canal.
Federal rules require boats to signal before passing through drawbridges like those on the canal. Vessel operators can use “radiotelephone communications," visuals such as flags, or sounds, which can be “made by whistle, horn, megaphone, hailer, or other device capable of producing the described signals loud enough to be heard by the drawtender," according to the U.S. Government Publishing Office Electronic Code of Federal Regulations.
The racket has bedeviled locals before and has served as fodder for countless queries and unsubstantiated explanations on local blogs.
A 2007 post on Gowanus Lounge linked the foghorn noise to tugboats and barges in the Buttermilk Channel, while a 2013 tweet blamed a saxonphonist.
Heard a steady foghorn sound in Park Slope for last 10 minutes. Is a ship in distress in Gowanus or is Colin Stetson playing at Littlefield?
— Mike Rubin (@rubinbooty) January 14, 2013Commenters on a Clinton Hill blog in 2008 came up with an impressive variety of possible sources for the horn blasts.
Theories included the Queen Mary II in Red Hook, the "retractile" Carroll Street bridge, call to prayer at at Fulton Street mosque, semi trucks on Fourth Avenue, the siren that warns Orthodox Jews that the Sabbath is approaching, and a practice run for the annual steam whistle concert at Pratt Institute.
The U.S. Coast Guard and city Department of Transportation did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
