• Matt Blaze@federate.socialOP
    1·
    7 days ago

    For much of the 20th century, the backbone of the AT&T “Long Lines” long distance telephone network consisted primarily of terrestrial microwave links (rather than copper or fiber cables). Towers with distinctive KS-15676 “horn” antennas could be seen on hilltops and atop switching center buildings across the US; they were simply part of the American landscape.

    Most of the relay towers were simple steel structures. This brutalist concrete platform in San Jose was, I believe, of a unique design.

    • John Francis@cosocial.ca
      1·
      6 days ago

      @mattblaze@federate.social there is still a tower with those horn antennas off highway 11 in northern Ontario. There used to be a set where I grew up, but now it’s just a massive tower with a few tiny cell antennas on it. Fiber went through in 1990 and we all got touch tone.

    • Matt Blaze@federate.socialOP
      1·
      7 days ago

      The San Jose Oak Hill Tower is unique in a number of ways. This particular concrete brutalist design appears not to have been used anywhere else; it seems to have been site-specific. It sits atop an underground switching center (that was partly used for a military contract), which explains the relatively hardened design.

      Today the underground switch is still there, owned by AT&T, but the tower space is leased to land mobile and cellular providers. The old horn antennas at top are disconnected.

      • Matt Blaze@federate.socialOP
        1·
        7 days ago

        With a few exceptions (mostly towers atop downtown switching offices in populated areas), no one was trying to make any of this utilitarian communications infrastructure beautiful. It was form strictly following function, built to be reliable and rugged.

        But there was, I think, quite a bit of beauty to find in it. I wonder if we’ll look at our current neighborhood cellular towers, now often regarded as a visual blight, the same way decades after they’re (inevitably) also gone.

        • Bruce Heerssen@darkmoon.social
          1·
          6 days ago

          @mattblaze@federate.social
          Some cellular towers are made to resemble trees, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. The effect is… not better.

        • Nate Vack 🍴@ruby.social
          1·
          7 days ago

          @mattblaze@federate.social I do wonder, with the angles of the concrete at the top of the tower, if there was at least some consideration for the aesthetics of the structure

          either way, this tower is dope as hell

        • greem@cyberplace.social
          1·
          7 days ago

          @mattblaze@federate.social Before BT (in the UK) went to fibre, they had a wide variety of towers for MW backbone/trunk data/voice comms. Many were utilitarian extended metal tetrahedra or trihedra, but some were quite unique - perhaps the most obvious being the former Post Office Tower in London.

          Many of them are now shadow of their former selves, with very few antennae attached.

          • Matt Blaze@federate.socialOP
            1·
            7 days ago

            @greem@cyberplace.social I was sad when they removed the antennas from the Post Office Tower (which I understand is being refurbished into a hotel).

            • greem@cyberplace.social
              1·
              7 days ago

              @mattblaze@federate.social Apparently so.

              It’s a difficult building to get rid of, because the foundation for the tower itself are intertwined with the former telephone exchange beneath it - which is now an incredibly important fibre interchange point.

              I was lucky enough to go up there in 2004 (or 2005) for a presentation lunch from Cisco. It’s fascinating inside.