MIT ‘Smoots’ hoax makes mark on measurements

Commuters, joggers and inquisitive tourists walking the Harvard Bridge often stop to ponder the strange markers labeled “Smoots” that mark off a seemingly arbitrary measurement along the bridge.

The curious symbols are not a forgotten measurement used by the Puritans, nor are they some form of symbology used by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology elite: the Smoot, as its makers call the measurement – which is equal to about 5-feet-7-inches — is actually the height of a young fraternity pledge decades ago.

One October night in 1958, brothers in MIT fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha selected Oliver Smoot from its newest pledge class to lie down on his stomach to be unceremoniously measured across the entire span of the bridge — a total of 364.4 “Smoots.”

“I was basically doing push ups,” Smoot, now almost 70 years old, told The Daily Free Press. “My arms, my biceps and triceps got tired. I don’t think I could do it now.”

Despite the strenuous hour and a half spent literally making his mark on Boston lore, Smoot said he enjoyed the experience and its lasting legacy. Smoots are now even a measurement that can be used on Google’s calculator function.

“It hasn’t shaped my life, but it has been a very pleasant and enjoyable part of my life,” he said. “Sometimes even trivial events have a huge impact.”

Smoot said few people within or outside of the institute paid much attention to the bridge markings during his stint at MIT, but more recent media attention surrounding the stunt has surprised him.

“I don’t think many of the students really cared, except those who used the bridge,” he said.

“It’s rather odd the amount of inquiries and comments that have increased recently, really starting in the mid-’80s,” he said. “After I graduated, I probably didn’t think about it for six to seven years.”

Smoots, now retired, fittingly worked as Chairman of the American National Standards Institute, a private nonprofit organization that oversees the development of measurements in the United States and coordinates those standards with measurements abroad — a position completely unrelated to his legacy as a measurement himself.

Current Lambda Chi Alpha Alumni Society president Steve Pettinato attributed Smoots’s notoriety to the bridge’s renovation from 1988 to 1990, when the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority offered to preserve the markers during construction.

“They tore up the sidewalk and had [the fraternity] come and save the markers and remeasure them again,” he said. “The state and city have really embraced the tradition.”

Pettinato said the tradition is important because it helps define the city.

“If you close your eyes, you don’t know where you are – there’s a Gap, a Banana Republic and four other chain stores,” he said. “But Smoots are totally unique to Boston.”

Pettinato said area police – who would not comment for this story – cooperate with the fraternity when members repaint the bridge one night during each of the fall and spring semesters.

“At first, police would show up and say, ‘What are you doing,'” he said. “Then we would call and let them know we were the guys who would paint the bridge. Now they come out to watch.”

Current fraternity president sophomore Ben Grannan said he and fellow brothers work hard to uphold the tradition, noting they will soon have “something special planned” to celebrate Smoots’s 50th anniversary in 2008.

“One of the most unique parts of this tradition is that personalities change in the house over the years,” he said. “Smoots keep everyone tied together.”