Ridge Road Microwave Tower

ATT microwave tower - Ridge Road - Jackson 08-09-2014Towers like this one on Ridge Road in Jackson used to dot the skyline. There was even one in downtown Cape next to the telephone company building on Broadway across from the Broadway Theater.

They were AT&T’s backbone for long distance communications. In the days before fiber optic cable, your phone calls would go from point to point by cable or by microwave.

Made to withstand nuclear blasts

ATT microwave tower - Ridge Road - Jackson 08-09-2014A fascinating website that touches on AT&T’s Long Lines said that the microwave installations were used for both civil and government communications. Most were built in the 1950s and 1960s during the height of the Cold War.

The buildings housing the electronics supporting the towers was hardened against a nuclear blast and in some cases were placed underground. The towers themselves were engineered to withstand all but a close (within five miles) blast.

Protected against fallout

ATT microwave tower - Ridge Road - Jackson 08-09-2014The microwave horns mounted on the towers were covered with a protective shield to keep out not only the elements, but radioactive fallout. The buildings were shielded with copper to protect the equipment inside against the electronic pulse generated by a nuclear explosion. Foot-thick concrete walls protected the vital electronics and people inside the base installations. Thick copper ground wires went deep into the bedrock.

There was a concrete tower facility about halfway down U.S. 1 going to Key West. I always figured that was my hurricane shelter of last resort if I could ever get to it. Jackson must not have rated so high on the nuclear threat list that it justified the extraordinary construction.

Bandwidth was the killer

ATT microwave tower - Ridge Road - Jackson 08-09-2014The thing that killed the Long Lines towers was the demand for bandwidth. A microwave link can carry only a small percentage of the capacity of a single strand of fiber optic cable. When the Internet exploded, the demand for bigger “pipes” exploded with it. After the microwave equipment was taken down, towers, like this one, were purchased by outfits like American Tower, which rents space for cellular and other antennas.

Cellular stations take up a lot less room than the old analog switch gear used by AT&T, so the big buildings aren’t needed.

Communications: foundation of democracy

Aerials - Microwave tower - Jackson 08-13-2014The author of the website said he saw an AT&T motto in one of the towers: “Communications is the foundation of democracy.” In those days, hard to believe today, the writer said the Long Lines crews went to work knowing that if nuclear war came, they would probably come out of their hardened facilities to find their families long gone.

The construction in the background is a new school being built. You can click on the photos to make them larger.

 

 

Commerce from the Air

Aerials Commerce Area 08-13-2014Ernie Chiles and I were on a photo mission to shoot Cairo and the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers on August 13, 2014.. Our trip took us over Commerce on the way back. There are lots of open lots where homes and businesses used to be after the floods of 1973, 1993, and 2011 took their toll on the town.

When I did an earlier story on Commerce, I noted that the 2010 Census recorded a population of 67 in 30 households, down from 110 people in 42 households ten years earlier. I wonder how many will be left in 2020?

Tried to fight the floods

Aerials Commerce Area 08-13-2014At least two homeowners tried to hold back the river with concrete floodwalls. I don’t know if they succeeded. Click on the photos to make them larger.

Family Dollar Store Site

Aerial of Sprigg and William area 11-06-2010When I was up in the steeple of St. Mary’s Cathedral the other day, I noticed land being cleared on William west of Sprigg. It’s one of those things where you say, “Something’s different, but I don’t know what.”

Here’s an aerial taken November 6, 2010, showing the area. The yellow arrow marks the spot. William Street runs from the bottom of the frame to the top of it, and we’re looking east toward St. Mary’s. The building to the left of the big black parking lot houses Fred’s Super Dollar Store and the Save-A-Lot food store.

Click on the photos to make them larger.

Site will be a Family Dollar Store

Family Dollar Store site 04-14-2014A November 25, 2013, Missourian business column reported that “an acre of land that includes four properties on William Street between Sprigg and Ellis streets has been sold to Family Dollar store and the deal is closed, according to Thomas M. Meyer of Exit Realty. All the properties now are commercially zoned and will be demolished to street level for the building of Family Dollar.

It’ll be interesting to see if the project continues in light of news stories that “Family Dollar closing 370 stores and lowering prices after revenue falls 6%.”

Should have shot in when weather was good

Family Dollar Store site 04-14-2014I should have gone from St. Mary’s to the vacant lot on a day with the temps were in the high 70s and the sky blue.

I procrastinated, though, and shot these when the wind was gusting, the thermometer was heading south into the low 40s and my bald head was being pelted by rain trying to get up enough gumption to turn to sleet.

This photo was taken from an alley on the east side of the property looking west toward the houses on Ellis.