Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Hughes Memorial Tower

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Type
  
Town or city
  
Washington, D.C.

Completed
  
January 15, 1989

Elevation
  
88 m

Address
  
Country
  
United States

Height
  
232 m

Opened
  
15 January 1989

Hughes Memorial Tower Regulus Star Notes Some Pictures of and Thoughts on DC39s Very Own

Owner
  
District of Columbia Office of Property Management

Similar
  
Kharkiv TV Tower, NSS Annapolis, Kiel Transmission Tower, Friedrich Clemens Gerke To, Blosenbergturm

Hughes memorial tower


The Hughes Memorial Tower is a radio tower located in Washington, D.C. at 6001 Georgia Avenue, near the intersection of 9th Street, NW, and Peabody Street, NW. Built on January 15, 1989, the tower is positioned at 38°57′47″N 77°1′36″W and at an elevation of 87.7 m (288 ft) above mean sea level. The tower is owned by the District of Columbia Office of Property Management. It is used to propagate the WDCW Channel 50 television signal and for radio communication by the Washington, D.C. police department on the 460 MHz frequency band.

Contents

Hughes Memorial Tower Radio stations in Washington DC World Radio Map

Origin

Hughes Memorial Tower Curtis Dogpark building in front of the Hughes Memorial To Flickr

It was named after then-retired Assistant DC Police Chief John S. Hughes, a leader in the department's adoption of communications technology. Standing at 761 ft (232 m) tall, the tower's height surpasses that the Washington Monument by more than 200 ft (61 m) and the WTTG Television Tower by 55 ft (17 m). It is the tallest structure in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. It was designed by Henry “Hank” McGinnis, a Texas engineer who designed other towers in the same style, known as Landmark or Adelphon.

Design

Hughes Memorial Tower Hughes Memorial Tower DC39s answer to the Eiffel Tower loc Flickr

The tower is a three-legged, free-standing star tower, similar to that built in 1936 for the Naval Radio Transmitter Facility in Annapolis, Maryland and the Star Tower in 1991 for WSTR-TV in Cincinnati, Ohio. The tower features ten daytime strobe beacons, situated on each of the tower's legs at one beacon per 200 ft (61 m) and like many other television transmitters, one at the top of the WDCW antenna. The beacons are synchronized to flash at 1.5-second intervals. It also has nighttime red warning navigation lights. The design includes a ichthys, or Jesus fish, developed from early sketches of the structure.

Location

Hughes Memorial Tower Hughes Memorial Tower Wikidi

The tower is located on a relatively high spot just off Georgia Avenue, NW, in Washington's Brightwood neighborhood, situated several miles from the city's main cluster of transmission towers in the Tenleytown neighborhood. Except for a much smaller transmission tower next to it, there are no nearby large structures. For these reasons, as well as its distinctive "star tower" shape and large size, the tower is prominently visible from a variety of locations in the District of Columbia and suburban Maryland.

Hughes Memorial Tower Radio stations in Washington DC World Radio Map

In 1998, the National Capital Planning Commission approved a plan to use the Hughes Memorial Tower as part of a 9-1-1 service upgrade. In doing so, it noted that the tower was constructed without its prior permission and that it has caused "concern about the effect of the tower on the views of the major monuments and memorials in the Nation's Capital." The tower has also generated criticism by those in nearby neighborhoods within Ward 4; during the winter months, the police "frequently have to close the streets next to this tower because of the risk[s] posed by falling ice."

Hughes Memorial Tower httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Hughes Memorial Tower Soaring 761 feet this radio and TV tower on Georgia Avenue NW is

References

Hughes Memorial Tower Wikipedia


Similar Topics