I’m pretty sure that Indiana is home to 102 of AT&T’s old Long Line towers, all relics that have outlasted their original purpose. I’m surprised that so many remain standing! Out of the 52 sites I’ve visited, only three have been demolished. While many have found new life in modern communications, the tower in Etna Green stands out with a unique purpose of its own.
We take long-distance communication for granted these days, but the earliest telephone networks were strictly local. Eventually, companies began to extend their networks by stringing open-wire lines, and later coaxial cables, from city to city. Unfortunately, the practice was insecure and expensive. In 1947, Bell Labs at AT&T revolutionized the system by using microwaves to transmit information. For nearly forty years, the company’s Long Line system beamed microwave signals containing TV shows and phone calls across the country in a zig-zag pattern.
AT&T’s Long Lines network was revolutionary in expanding long-distance communications, improving call quality, and building a backbone for national defense. Unfortunately, its utility ended once geostationary satellites and improvements in fiberoptic technology came to market. AT&T shut the system down after competitors introduced digital networks and sold most of the towers.
Long Lines aren’t a thing anymore, but 200-foot lattice towers remain invaluable for other purposes. I’ve been to some retrofitted with cell equipment and others that provide rural internet service. Believe it or not, I’ve even gone to several that still support pager networks! The towers continue to be crucial infrastructure, often marked with signs that warn of the legal and physical risks of trespassing.
Along with its KS-15676s and SHX10A antennae from the Long Line days, the old Long Line tower in Etna Green sports all kinds of weird doodads I’m not familiar with. That said, the most intriguing thing about it is a sign mounted to its gate. “ABSOLUTELY NO WORK,” it blares in large capital letters. “A FEDERALLY PROTECTED BIRD NEST IS LOCATED AT THIS FACILITY.”
I’m no fan of birds, but the nests of those unpredictable, beady-eyed sky demons -creatures that some Gen-Z’ers doubt even exist- seem to be a key reason why Etna Green’s old Long Line tower still stands. At the very least, they’re why oversight is necessary for any work on the aging structure. If I’d learned about federally-protected nests in high school or college when I read Ayn Rand and studied political science, I would have seen it as a clear case of government overreach. Now, I’m not so certain.
There’s a nuanced argument to be made for or against federally-protected environments. Fortunately, the debate seems to be a non-issue at the Etna Green tower. AT&T and Mercury Wireless still use it for cell phone service and broadband internet, and I suspect those necessary upgrades were made without disrupting the delicate skyward ecosystem. If birds are part of the reason that the tower didn’t meet the fate of those in Marion, Pleasant Lake, and Burlington, well, I reluctantly salute them. Who would have thought it?
