AT&T went crazy building an assortment of microwave relay towers as part of its Long Lines network in the 1950s and 60s. Many of them still stand, but some don’t. The completionist in me couldn’t resist taking a photo of the site of a demolished tower just north of Marion, Indiana.
Phone companies originally connected distant cities by running cable. It was expensive, so AT&T designed an experimental microwave network called TDX in 1947. Three years later, the company rolled out an improved technology called TD-2 that became the basis for its Long Line towers.
The tower in Marion relayed a signal from Point Isabel, thirty miles southwest, to a tower near Warren, fourteen miles northeast1. Based on its counterparts, the tower was probably built between 19652 and 19703.
Several technological improvements spelled the end of the Long Lines program in the 1980s. Unfortunately, satellite images show that the tower was demolished sometime between September, 2003, and August, 20044. Today, part of the drive back to the property is all that exists.
Sources Cited
1 Long Lines Map and Information (n.d.). Web. Map. Retrieved November 14, 2023.
2 Grant County Office of Information & GIS Services. (2023). Parcel ID: 27-12-27-300-015.000-010 . Grant County, Indiana Assessor. map, Marion, IN.
3 Huntington County Office of Information & GIS Services. (2023). Parcel ID: 35-12-05-300-025.000-016. Huntington County, Indiana Assessor. map, Huntington, IN.
4 Google. (2004, August). [Google Maps Marion ATT tower location]. Retrieved November 27, 2023, from Google Earth Pro.
