Today, the number sequences that reveal our locations
– and sometimes much more – are second nature
to us. But, it wasn’t always the case. More than
60 years ago, Glenn Miller composed a Big Band favorite,
“PEnnsylvania 6-5000.” Retro jitterbug enthusiasts
still dance to it today. It refers to the Hotel Pennsylvania,
still standing in New York City today and still reached
at 736-5000. (The first two digits correspond to PE on
your phone buttons.) Or take mail codes. Remember those
two-digit identifiers between the city and state in pre-ZIP-code
America?
Times have changed. When telephone area codes were introduced
in the Old Dominion in the late 1940s, all of the state
was in the 703 area, now assigned to only a part of Northern
Virginia. At the time, the Commonwealth was one of 35
states that were assigned a single code. Today, only about
a dozen can be reached through a lone code.
You can blame democracy for area codes. In post-World-War-II
America, everyone wanted a phone and the old two- or sometimes
three-letter exchanges couldn’t handle the load.
Three-digit area codes were proposed and assigned in part
by population density. Since phones had rotary pulse-driven
dials at the time, it took awhile for the dial to spin
around. An area code such as 909 required 28 pulses –
nine for each digit and 10 for the zero. Populated areas
such as New York City (212) and Chicago (312) got area
code combinations at the top end of the dial, which took
the least time to rotate (Area
Code Trivia).
It’s a reflection of Virginia’s rural character
in the late 1940s that the state was assigned the 703
code closer to the bottom of the dial. Today, Virginia
has seven area codes – 276, 434, 540, 571, 703,
757, 804 (Virginia
Area Codes). When area codes were originally assigned,
the middle number was always a zero in the states with
single codes. States with multiple codes, such as California,
had a one as the middle digit. This changed in 1995, when
it became clear that there weren’t enough combinations
using the original system. Most of Virginia’s additional
area codes were adopted after that date. In 1995, the
703 area code was split, with the western part of the
state becoming 540. In 1997, the 804 area code, which
covered the southern and eastern part of the state, was
split and 757 was assigned to eastern Virginia. In 1999,
the 751 overlay was created in the 703 area to accommodate
the increasing numbers of mobile phones. New numbers in
the 703 area were given that area code. The 804 area code
was split yet again in June 2001 with areas such as Charlottesville
and Lynchburg adopting the 434 area code. The 540 area
code, which was created when 703 was split in 1995, was
divided yet again in September 2001 with areas such as
Bristol, Wytheville and Grundy using a new 276 area code.
For those who long for the simpler days of the letter
telephone exchanges, there is hope. A computer consultant
named Robert Crowe runs the Telephone Exchange Name Project.
He collects old exchange names and offers a grid of names
and exchanges that were used in former days. “Exchange
names helped foster a sense of place and community, in
the same way cities do,” he said in a 1997 Los
Angeles Times article. “They’re also
a link to our more analog past, which is fast slipping
away” (Telephone Exchange Name Project). He even
suggests using letter exchanges on your voice mail and
business cards to help revive the institution.
As to that other identifier – the ZIP code –
it also has its origins in World War II. After thousands
of postal workers enlisted in the war, the then-named
Post Office Department developed a zoning system to help
novice mail sorters separate mail more easily. Thus, the
one and two-digit identification system, which some of
us remember from our childhood, was born.
A postal inspector named Robert Moon is credited as the
father of the first three digits of the current ZIP code
system, which divides the country into general geographic
regions. Although ZIP codes were not introduced until
1963, Moon first proposed the idea in 1944. At the time,
most mail was carried by trains and sorted as it traveled
across the country. Moon felt that this method would not
be able to accommodate the increase in post-WW II mail
and that a coding system needed to be developed that would
allow for mechanization. By July 1963, the bureaucracy
caught up with Moon’s concept and the five-digit
ZIP or Zoning Improvement Plan was introduced.
Here’s how Virginia’s ZIP codes are structured.
The first digit represents a group of states. All Virginia
ZIP codes begin with 2, as do ZIP codes in Washington,
D.C., Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and West
Virginia. The second and third digits together designate
a region in that group or sometimes a large city. For
example, all Richmond ZIP codes begin with the digits
232. The 4th and 5th digits identify more specific areas,
such as small towns or regions of a city. Sometimes the
main town in a ZIP code gets the first codes for the region
and then the numerical order often follows alphabetical
order (Wikipedia
ZIP Code).
For example, some of the Old Dominion’s highest
ZIP codes are assigned to towns near the end of the alphabet
– 24651 for Tazewell, 24656 for Vansant, and 24658
for Wolford (Virginia
ZIP codes). The plus-four digits further define a
mail location and are most often used by businesses and
large organizations. Among Virginia cities, Richmond has
the most ZIP codes, with over 50; Roanoke has 46; Norfolk,
24; and Alexandria, 22.
Once ZIP codes were introduced, it didn’t take long
for people to recognize their usefulness beyond tracking
the mail. The U.S. Census gathers data based on areas
related to ZIP codes. Just by entering your ZIP on its
American FactFinder site, you can gather all types of
information about your neighborhood from median age to
per capita income and house value (U.S.
Census Bureau -- American FactFinder).
Marketers also design direct mail campaigns; and sales
clerks often ask for ZIP codes to gather purchasing information.
ZIP codes even cultivate their own images. Remember the
T.V. show, “Beverly Hills 90210”?
As with area codes, ZIP codes are often split and changed,
especially when rural areas become more suburban. When
a new regional U.S. Postal Service facility was opened
at Dulles Airport a few years back, it was given a new
201 prefix and all the post offices it served changed
from their old 220 or 221 codes to the new one.
And it is not just suburban growth that sparks new ZIP
codes. When evacuees from New Orleans ended up in Houston’s
Astrodome and Reliant Center after Hurricane Katrina,
the Postal Service introduced brand new ZIP codes so it
could receive mail during their stay.
Let’s hope new identifiers in the Old Dominion have
more positive origins.
October 31, 2005.
Nice & Curious
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Last Modified:
Friday, June 27, 2008
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