National Debt Clock - New York, NY
Posted by: 
neoc1
N 40° 45.384 W 073° 59.029
18T E 585777 N 4512212
The National Debt Clock is located on the south side of W. 44th Street west of 6th Avenue (Avenue of the Americas)
Waymark Code: WMGB19
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 02/08/2013
Views: 19
The National Debt Clock was invented and sponsored by New York real estate developer Seymour Durst. It is visible to westbound pedestrians (it is not visible to vehicles) on W. 44th Street high up on the east facing side of an office building which is, ironically, next to the Internal Revenue Service office. It is not really a clock since it does not give the time; but instead is a digital counter which shows ever larger, continuously updated, dot matrix numbers at a dizzying speed. The number represents the current national debt of the United States. A smaller display at the lower right indicated the American Family's share of the national debt.
When my photographs were taken on 20 January 2013 the sign read:
OUR NATIONAL DEBT:
16, 402, 451, 020, 041
YOUR Family Share 138,834
THE NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK
(16 trillion, 402 billion, 451 million, 20 thousand, and 41 dollars)
The original national debt clock was installed in 1989. For several months from September 2000 to July 2002 the national debt went down. Since the clock was unable to work backwards the clock did not display numbers. It was replaced with the current updated version in 2004, which can, but never has, run backwards.