Sixty and seventy years ago, AT&T built thousands of microwave relay towers as part of its transcontinental Long Line communications network. It’s been a long time since they were used in that capacity, but many of the towers still stand. One of them is in Noblesville.
Noblesville’s Long Line tower was built in 19671. At a height of 150 feet2, it relayed a signal from AT&T’s central office in Indianapolis to a tower sixteen miles northeast in Anderson3. Unfortunately, the structure no longer retains its microwave antennae.
After the Long Lines program ended, most of the old towers were sold by an AT&T successor. I’m quite positive that Noblesville’s has been truncated since its Long Line days, but it’s still used for cellular reception today4.
Sources Cited
1 Parcel 10-11-18-00-00-009.000 (2024). Office of the Assessor. Hamilton County [Noblesville]. Web. Retrieved April 7, 2024.
2 Long Lines Map and Information (n.d.). Web. Map. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
3 Transmitter Characteristics (n.d.). Antennasearch. Web. Retrieved February 24, 2024.
4 (See footnote 2).
