Sixty and seventy years ago, AT&T built thousands of Long Line towers as part of its transcontinental microwave communications network. It’s been decades since they were used for their original purpose, but many of them still tower above the countryside. One’s just south of Rochester on State Road 25.
The tower near Rochester appears to have been built in 19761. Rising 258 feet2, it relayed a signal twenty-one miles southwest from a tower near Anoka to another twenty-four miles northeast in Bremen3. Unfortunately, the tower has been stripped of its horn antennae.
I couldn’t decide whether an impolite bird ruined my shot or made it more interesting, so I decided to include both. Choose your favorite with the slider! After the Long Lines program ended, a successor to AT&T sold the tower in 2006. Today, it’s operated by SBA Communications4.
Sources Cited
1 Parcel 25-07-95-200-001.000-008 (2024). Office of the Assessor. Fulton County [Rochester]. Web. Retrieved May 25, 2024.
2 Transmitter Characteristics (n.d.). Antennasearch. Web. Retrieved February 24, 2024.
3 Long Lines Map and Information (n.d.). Web. Map. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
4 (See footnote 2).
