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If you’ve been to Seattle, Washington - or even just heard about it - you’d probably guess that its nickname is something like “The Space Needle City.” That 184-meter-high tower, with an observation deck and restaurant, was built for the 1962 world’s fair there, and has become the city’s most famous landmark. Or maybe Seattle is “The City Where It’s Always Raining.” That’s an exaggeration, as there are plenty of other U.S. cities that get more total precipitation. But elsewhere it often rains hard and then clears. Seattle gets long, drizzly showers off the Pacific Ocean, sometimes with days of cloudy skies before and afterward. Seattle is also world-famous for its seafood - particularly salmon - caught in the ocean or fast-moving area rivers. But the city’s nickname comes from none of these sources, and when you hear it, you’ll want an explanation. Seattle is the “City of Clocks.” Not alarm clocks or huge clock towers but street clocks. “Post clocks,” they’re sometimes called. There are still at least a dozen of what once numbered 55 or more of these large timepieces, weighing up to two tons, perched on cast-iron pedestals or columns on important downtown streets. Most of these clocks served as ticking advertising testimonials for the jewelry shops that maintained them. So many were dark green that there’s even a color called “street clock green.” | 
