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.
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Matt Blaze
In response to this postThe 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.
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.
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Chris Samuel
In response to this post@mattblaze I've been looking at some of the Alert California cameras around LA (have friends in Northridge) and stumbled across one of the cameras on Topanga Peak which has a nice view of another one of those Long Lines stations. https://cameras.alertcalifornia.org/?pos=34.0959_-118.5425_12&id=Axis-TopangaPeak2
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John Francis
In response to this post@mattblaze 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.
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