Times Square: Silent

What lies beneath: I have often taken people to visit the "audio sculpture" called Times Square: New York (listen here) that is located under some metal grills at the very center of Times Square, the traffic island at 46th Street right where Seventh Avenue and Broadway overlap.

It's a mysterious but harmonious constantly-playing chord, that emanates upwards from beneath your feet. The artist, the late Max Neuhaus, created it back in 1977, from the cacophony of trucks, trains, clunks, clanks, yells and screams which he recorded one day in and around Times Square: out of the strong came forth sweetness; out of the  of Times Square comes forth harmony. And it plays 24 hours a day... except that last week, I took someone to hear it, experience it, and.... silence. We stared down at the metal grill, and no sound was to be heard.

I wonder why? Will it return? I hope so!