Read time: 2 min.

AT&T built myriad microwave relay towers across the US in the 1950s and 60s. The company called its transcontinental telecommunications system the Long Lines network, and it led to early long-distance phone service. Although decades have passed since the towers were last used for their intended purpose, many of them continue to dominate the countryside. The monoliths captured my attention from a young age, and one towers over Lynn, in rural Randolph County. 

It was standard practice for phone companies to connect distant cities by cable up through the 1940s. Running lines from town to town was expensive, so AT&T designed an experimental microwave network called TDX in 1947. An improved technology called TD-2 was rolled out in 1950.

The system relayed signals from distant origins through line-of-sight towers with unique horn-reflector antennas. The 238-foot¹ tower near Lynn appears to have been built in 1964². It relayed a signal from New Hope, Ohio, to another tower in Rose Hill, just south of Fort Recovery. 

The network was obsolete by the 1980s when geostationary satellites, improved fiber optics, and digital networks became widespread. AT&T was broken up in 1984, and a successor company sold the Lynn tower in 2000. 

Although its microwave antennae have been removed, Lynn’s tower still dominates the countryside and is used for other communications purposes.

Sources Cited
1 FCC Registered Cell Phone and Antenna Towers in Lynn, Indiana (n.d.). City-Data.com. Web. Retrieved November 5, 2023.
2 Randolph County Office of Information & GIS Services. (2022). Parcel ID: 68-13-30-400-018.000-016. Randolph County, Indiana Assessor. map, Winchester, IN.