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Breaking
the Codes:
Virginia’s
Multiplying Numbers
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.
NEXT:
Raise Your Mug: Virginia’s Lagers and Ales
--
October 31, 2005
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