This is one of those things you could pass repeatedly without realizing what you're looking at. Big Bertha hasn't sounded in decades, but during the Cold War, this enormous yellow siren was part of Seattle's warning system for an enemy attack. Installed in 1953 near John B. Allen School, “Big Bertha” is a Chrysler air-raid siren weighing approximately 5,500 pounds. It was one of 21 powerful sirens positioned around Seattle and could produce sound approaching 130 decibels. The siren was tested every Wednesday at noon. Accounts from the era describe schoolchildren practicing emergency drills by taking cover beneath their desks while neighborhood dogs howled at the sound. As Cold War warning systems became obsolete, the sirens fell silent. Big Bertha survived and was eventually restored by the community, although the siren itself remains inoperative. Today it sits quietly in Phinney Ridge—a remarkably large reminder of a time when Seattle was preparing for the possibility of nuclear attack.