How many (nitrogen) tanks does it take till you get to the center of it?

Have you ever wondered why there are so many nitrogen tanks all over the streets of New York? More importantly, why is it that so many New Yorkers walk by these conspicuous looking bellowing tanks without batting an eyelid? Do the warnings that say “rapid suffocation” and “severe frostbite” not make you feel a little afraid? 

This picture was taken from my iPhone today.  I have asked several people and nobody seems to know or care. The few who are intrigued offer dramatically diverging hypotheses. I have heard everything from “its a public art project” to ” Alan Moore installed them to make the city look more like Gotham” to ” it cools the streets.” On doing some research, I came across this article.

I was disappointed to learn that the explanation was quite mundane.

Apparently Verizon uses the tanks to pump nitrogen gas into the phone lines to keep them dry. 

I am still not fully satisfied with this explanation. If anyone else solves this mystery, please let me know!

The reason I find this interesting is because it speaks volumes about New York and its inhabitants; the bar for what is deemed out of the ordinary is so high that it takes A LOT to grab ones attention in the middle of all the urban maelstrom. I bet if you replaced every nitrogen tank with three midget duck billed platypuses people would not notice.