Twice a year, in mid-November and late January, sunlight pours the full 251-meter length of the Infinite Corridor through the main buildings of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It threads parts of the buildings numbered 7, 3, 10, 4, and 8, running west to east and serving as the most direct indoor route between the east and west ends of campus. The corridor was designed as the central spine of the original set of MIT buildings by William W. Bosworth in 1913.
Twice a year, in mid-November and in late January, its straight line aligns with the position of the Sun and sunlight pours the full length of the passage in an event nicknamed MIThenge, celebrated by students, faculty, and staff. That regular cut of light is part of what gives this long hall its public life.
For scale, the Infinite Corridor is slightly longer than the 800-foot (240 m) hallway in University Hall at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, and yet noticeably shorter than the so-called K-Straße at the Free University of Berlin, about 320 metres (1,050 ft). Picture sunlight pouring the full length of this hallway twice a year, in the event nicknamed MIThenge.