Secret echo chamber drawing attention at San Francisco's Montgomery Street BART station

Lisa Amin Gulezian Image
ByLisa Amin Gulezian KGO logo
Sunday, May 19, 2019
Secret echo chamber drawing attention at San Francisco's Montgomery Street BART station
If you've walked through the Montgomery Street Bart station recently you've probably noticed a bit of an echo near the ticketing agent.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Aspiring singer, Neska Urdampilleta, loves Montgomery Street Station's somewhat secret echo chamber.

"It sounded like I could hear myself. It was good."

Jokingly, Jackson Ly yells, "Helllooooooo echo chamber at Montgomery Bart station!"

The dome shaped ceiling is what creates the echo. It essentially reflects the sound back to the center of the circle below.

Ron Hipschman is a physicist at the Exploratorium and explains how it all works.

"It's being amplified back at you so you get this effect which I call 'god voice'. All of a sudden you are totally amplified, you have this really booming voice even though no one else can hear you."

Passerby Marilyn Lagandaon says, "This is so trippy. It echoes in the circle right over here but if you step just a few feet away to the left or to the right outside of the circle it won't echo."

The echo takes just about everyone by surprise. Many stop just to try it out. Saadiq Anderson is one of them.

"Lalalala woo hoo! Yeah, it's echoing all around me!"

The echo chamber is also a whisper chamber. If you whisper something while standing on one side of the circle, a person standing on the other side of the circle can hear you.

It's a fun, free find for everyone in San Francisco.