"CARTWHEEL" Tower, Fort Reno, Washington, DC, 2020.
All the pixels, on a need-to-know basis, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/49576247768/
"CARTWHEEL" Tower, Fort Reno, Washington, DC, 2020.
All the pixels, on a need-to-know basis, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/49576247768/
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Matt Blaze
In response to this postCaptured with the Rodenstock 23mm/5.6 HR Digaron-S lens (@ f/6,3), Phase One IQ4-150 back (@ ISO 50), Phase One XT camera (1/25 sec exposure).
This unassuming cylindrical tower, at first glance perhaps a grain silo or water tower, was part of a secret "continuity of government" microwave communications network. Built in the early 1960's, a network of similar towers located around the capital region linked the White House with critical sites such as Camp David, Raven Rock, and Mount Weather.
The upper white section of the tower is actually a plexiglass radome, concealing various microwave and UHF radio antennas.
CARTWHEEL and its cousins were decommissioned around 1990. Most of the towers, mainly atop mountains in remote areas, were demolished or left to rot. However, CARTWHEEL and CORKSCREW (on a mountain near the Appalachian trail in central Maryland) have been maintained in good condition, now repurposed by the FAA.
by Matt Blaze ;
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