From the 1940s through the sixties and seventies, 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 one still stands smack dab in the middle of downtown Terre Haute!
The tower in Terre Haute sits just behind AT&T’s central office. I imagine the 190-foot structure dates to the early 1960s1. When it was in use, it relayed a signal twenty-five miles west to Kansas, Illinois; twenty-three miles southwest to Graysville, and twenty-four miles northeast to Lena2.
After the Long Lines program ended, AT&T deaccessioned most of its towers around the year 2000. In an unexpected twist of fate, AT&T still owns there Terre Haute tower today3. It’s only been about ten years since the tower still sported its old KS-15676 horn antennae4.
Sources Cited
1 Transmitter Characteristics (n.d.). Antennasearch. Web. Retrieved July 29, 2024.
2 Long Lines Map and Information (n.d.). Web. Map. Retrieved May 26, 2024.
3 (See footnote 1).
4 Folks, A. (2015, January 14). AT&T-owned tower looks bare after microwave horn antennas are removed. The Terre Haute Tribune-Star. Web. Retrieved November 9, 2024.
