AT&T built a veritable buttload boatload of microwave relay towers as part of its Long Line communications network in the 1950s and 60s. Although they haven’t been used as part of it in nearly forty years, many of them remain standing across Indiana like the tower near Bremen.
Built in 19681. Bremen’s Long Line tower originally relayed signals from a tower twenty-four miles southwest near Rochester to another in North Liberty, twenty miles northwest2. Unfortunately, the tower’s microwave antennae have been removed. I’ve yet to stumble across a straight tower that retains them.
After the Long Lines program ended, AT&T sold the Bremen tower in 20023. Today, the 303-foot structure4 is used by Fourway Computer Products, an internet provider.
Sources Cited
1 Parcel 504326000001000001 (2024). Marshall County Assessor’s Office [Plymouth]. Web. Retrieved May 26, 2024.
2 Long Lines Map and Information (n.d.). Web. Map. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
Transmitter Characteristics (n.d.). Antennasearch. Web. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
3 (See footnote 1).
4 Transmitter Characteristics (n.d.). Antennasearch. Web. Retrieved February 24, 2024.
Do you know if there are any uses for the old microwave horns left on many of the towers? I doubt it and suspect they are just left there as it’s cheaper than taking them down except on the straight towers where the wind load is more of a problem.
I think you’re correct. I don’t know of any modern use for them. I’d never thought of wind load, but it makes sense why I haven’t found a straight tower with an intact microwave horn. I doubt my exploration of the southern half of the state will yield any different results.
We had to remove some of our ham radio antennas which were just long straight tubes part way up WANE-TV’s tower because they became concerned about wind load as they updated their antennas for the new frequencies 10 years ago.
It all makes sense now!