You already know it as the brightest beacon on the Boston skyline. But here are a few things you might not know about the familiar CITGO sign.

• The sign was built over a Cities Service divisional office in 1940.
• Said to be the largest sign in New England, the CITGO sign is double-faced and measures 60 feet by 60 feet.
• The computer-operated sign illuminates the night from dusk till midnight.
• In early 2005, the CITGO sign went through a major restoration and technology upgrade from using neon tubes to LEDs.
• It has withstood five hurricanes, all packing winds over 80 mph.
• The sign was deemed an “Object d’ Heart” by Time magazine, photographed in a 1983 Life magazine and featured in the New York Times.
• In 1968, the critically acclaimed short film “Go, Go CITGO” captured honors at the Yale Film Festival. The flick featured the sign along with music by the Monkees and Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar.
• In 1987, an animated film was made by a local artist to immortalize Kenmore Square’s “neon god.” Inspired by Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence,” the three-minute film “CITGO Dance” won an award from the Artists Foundation’s Massachusetts Artists Fellowship Program.
• Every time a baseball player hits a home run over the left field wall at Boston’s Fenway Park, CITGO is seen by thousands of fans at the stadium and on television.