Pegasus to Once Again Fly in Dallas Skyline

摘要

This New Year's Eve, Pegasus, the mythical flying horse that has been a downtown Dallas, Tex., landmark for 65 years, will once again glow red in the night sky as it revolves atop the historic Magnolia Building. When the sign is relit and starts rotating, it will be the culmination of a $600,000 community-wide project to restore the structure to its original splendor. The Magnolia Oil Co., predecessor of the Mobil Oil Corp., originally commissioned the Pegasus sign for the annual meeting of the American Petroleum Institute that opened in Dallas on November 8, 1934. It consists of two horses mounted 14 ft apart to disguise the bracing behind. Each horse stands 35 ft high and 50 ft long and is made of several porcelain-coated steel panels affixed to metal braces with steel bolts. The horses are mounted atop a 50-ft-tall tower that resembles an oil derrick. The original sign required 800 sq ft of sheet metal, 2500 lb of steel angles and 1/4 mile of neon tubing. A 3-hp motor powered the original rotating system.