Most people are focused upward and outward while visiting historic #Charleston, but there are a number of things worth noting beneath your feet. In 1909, the city started adding cast-brass street plate names into the sidewalks, and they can be found throughout the city still today. A few sidewalk plates show different names than the street signs above them – as in the pictured “St. Michael’s Place” plate, above which the street sign says “St. Michael’s Alley”. About a century after the brass plates were added, the city also laid what is called “tactile paving” at street corners as a means for the visually impaired to be warned about stepping off the sidewalk into a street. The raised bumps don’t really spell out anything as in genuine braille, but they make it clearly understood as to the warning not to step into the path of an oncoming vehicle. <img.src=”Charleston Curiosities” alt=”sidewalk plates”
