The Workings of A Civil Engineer's Mind

Andrew Sullivan has a View From Your Window contest where readers try to guess where a picture is taken from.  It is difficult for me to generally identify the right continent, let alone get very close.  I actually got the right state this time:

How?  The post said the photo was taken on April 17, and it looked like snow, but more important were the yellow mastarms.  I'd never seen them before and googled yellow mastarms, and the first item mentioned that North Dakota's DOT specified yellow mastarms.  Snow on April 17 and yellow mastarms, I assumed it was probably Bismarck or Fargo.  Apparently, I wasn't alone:

Another:

I won't be able to guess the exact location, being sidetracked by OBL's killing, but I'll give the general location. I spent some time in the transportation industry and one thing I learned is that states usually put their own unique details on traffic control devices, so I bypassed some other clues to hone in on the traffic signals.  The yellow poles and yellow mast arms are found in North Dakota, Fargo in particular. So I say Fargo.

Another:

The VFYW contest gets me through most Saturday nights when I pull the night shift with our newborn daughter. This week was a winner. As a civil engineer, I was most caught by the yellow mast arms for the traffic lights. North Dakota DOT mandates that all mast arms be yellow, which then only left a couple cities. Then I narrowed it down to Minot and the hospital from which the photo was taken.  I can't help but think that the snow on such a late day in 2011 hopefully brought a smile to the patient or family member of the patient in that room.
Our daughter's nursery is travel themed and stocked with books of all the places we hope she'll see. A VFYW book would be a great addition!

Engineers are a different breed.  Of course, all of the VFYW winners are a different breed.