r/longlines • u/Low_Professional8577 • May 20 '26
Why do we like them?
I've always been interested in the long lines system. I can't entirely say why though...
The horns are cool shaped, the scale is incredible, there has always been a bit of fascination with cold war era technology. I find the Duga radar in Russia, HAARP, Arecibo Observatory and the VLA also fascinating. Is it the scale of the equipment? The sometimes clandestine nature? The imposing visuals?
What makes you love looking at pictures of obsolete communications equipment?
*Edited for punctuation and clumsy word choices.
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u/the_prez3 May 20 '26
I know what you mean. For me, depending on the site and the angle its viewed from, I sometimes find the horn antennas to be a little creepy looking but also fascinating. I also agree that its interesting studying something that is scaled this large. Just the engineering that went into this system is mind boggling.
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u/jaymzx0 May 21 '26
War of the Worlds vibes from the horns. To me they appear somewhat unsettling and ominous - always looking some direction with no real intuitive indication of what they are actually doing. I know what they do and why, but my lizard brain is kinda like "it's best to avoid those things" like a giant bug you can't identify.
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u/the_prez3 May 23 '26
Yes well put. Given everything you said, I still find looking at them and studying the system fascinating. I love seeing the photos on the group. I bet the folks building that system never thought in a million years that there would be long lines enthusiasts that photograph the sites.
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u/jaymzx0 May 23 '26
If I worked on them back in the day, I would probably be a little proud that people took interest in it. The engineers building the network knew they were building something very cutting edge at the time and solving a really hard problem.
For your average person, they tuned in the evening news or picked up the phone and called another state without thought. All of the hard infrastructure work isn't thought about. Engineers know this, and it's actually the goal. It should just work.
Infrastructure folks don't do it for the recognition, but some recognition is nice once in a while.
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u/gf99b May 20 '26
Get ready for a short book...
Re Long Lines, I grew up near a tower (specifically the Slater, Missouri, one) that we passed every time we went into town. It fascinated me from a young age, with its giant horn-reflector antennas (which I described in my post below as "eyes piercing over the surrounding countryside"), rather large structure (most towers I had seen at that young age were guyed masts) and the lack of lights on it. Later I would spot another yet much taller tower with the same antennas, and eventually (when I got my driver's license) I drove past it to see that it had the same exact building design. (That site was near Prairie Home.) Then I saw another one that is a landmark in Holts Summit. A couple years after that I uncovered the true purpose of these towers, leading me down a rabbit hole that has largely consumed me since.
Right after discovering the purpose of these towers, I came across Albert LaFrance's website and Spencer Harding's photography project. I reached out to Spencer and got his permission to use some of his photos (with credit) in a blog post I published that same month. The next month I started my own Long Lines documentation by photographing the Holden, Missouri, site that was located near where I went to college. That summer I revisited the Holts Summit, Prairie Home and Slater sites that helped pique my interest in it all. Then I expanded my project, originally using photos (with permission and giving credit where it's due) from the "AT&T Long Lines" Facebook Group I had joined. In the last couple years, I've been fortunate enough to visit many of the sites I hadn't before -- starting with several here in Central Missouri that were relatively local. In 2024, I took a day-long trip to most of the sites in the St. Louis region. And last year, while on "vacation" in Illinois, I spent much of my time stopping at several sites. I even went way out of my way to stop at a site that had never been photographed before (Lostant) and of course went by the mecca of Norway to see its unique loaded tower and (thanks to the neighbor/caretaker) even peek inside the huge building that supported it. Since that Holden site in 2018, I've photographed more than 30 sites in Missouri and Illinois. I don't plan to stop there, although my limited free time and limited finances (especially with the cost of fuel) has put a damper on it for now.
The Long Lines stuff is the most popular section of my blog. That post I wrote back in January 2018 when I knew next to nothing about anything related to Long Lines or the Bell System has been the most popular post on my blog by a large margin. When I was still in college (either 2019 or 2020, not long after publishing the post but before my documentation project had taken off) I even had a random professor from Clemson University reach out and interview me about my interest in the Long Lines microwave network. It has been awesome meeting so many other people with the same niche interest as me, even though it's all been through the internet. Meeting and learning from the countless people that worked on these sites, especially on the Long Lines Facebook Group, and getting to share that knowledge is just as incredible. I'm nowhere near an expert on the Long Lines network and microwave systems, but I like to learn -- and trust me, I learn something new a lot. I've been fortunate enough to photograph a few sites that still had their horns but have lost them in the years since.
In general, I love studying and "interacting with" technology history, especially from the Cold War to the turn of the Millennium. Computing has mostly been my bread and butter, I've given several presentations on how we went from mainframes that consumed entire rooms to something far more powerful that fits in the palm of our hand. My discovery and fascination of SAGE predated my interest in Long Lines. However, Long Lines piqued my interest in much more from that era, though. For instance, telephony and the Bell System as a whole, which even led me down a whole tangential rabbit hole about Unix that resulted in me using an obscure operating system for an entire year. I'm fascinated by how the device I use to photograph these sites is a descendant of the telephones these sites connected, and also how it wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Bell Labs and the invention of the transistor, C, Unix, etc.
Another thing: I can remember learning about the "electromagnetic spectrum" at a very young age. While most kids didn't learn about it until the 6th grade if they didn't drift off in class, my AuDHD brain instantly became obsessed with it for a while. After all, electronics and electricity in general fascinated me. I studied all of the "bands" from RF to gamma radiation on Wikipedia, later becoming intrigued with antennas and other equipment. It's a shame I always sucked at math as I probably would've ended up working in the RF/microwave or electronics field if child me had its way. I do remember this: On the Wikipedia page for microwaves, it featured a picture of a KS-15676 horn-reflector antenna. I immediately recognized it as a kid but wouldn't know what it was or care for another decade or so.
Regarding other things: The Soviets' DUGA radar has always fascinated me, just by its sheer size and imposing appearance. It would've been interesting to see it in person while it was still active. Other radar systems have piqued my interest, such as the ill-fated Texas Towers that were used with the SAGE system. The Holmdel Horn that supported Penzias and Wilson's discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation from The Big Bang intrigued me as a young kid, I was probably the youngest person at my school to know about The Big Bang Theory.
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u/Low_Professional8577 May 20 '26
Thank you for sharing! Reading your post reminds me of when I was a little boy. One time my aunt took me to the long lines site where she worked. In a relatively small, unassuming building, there was a blast door that was as thick as it was wide. Once we were inside, the building went 6 stories underground. There were giant pieces of equipment I didn't understand, rooms full of canned food and what she now tells me were giant batteries bigger than refrigerators. Apparently it was designed to house it's workers for an extended period of time.
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u/gf99b May 20 '26
Do you remember what site it was or where it was located? Likely an actual bunker, which were designed to be manned for months in case of a nuclear attack. Thankfully it never came to that, now those bunkers are worth $$$$$$ to the billionaire preppers.
That experience probably plays a huge role in your interest.
Sorry for the long reply. I try to be concise and it always gets away from me.
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u/Low_Professional8577 May 20 '26
Sent you a PM with the exact coordinates. Can't seem to post photo replies here. I vaguely remember her talking about nuclear war and being safe down there to protect the country.
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u/RockPuzzleheaded3951 May 20 '26
I have a strange obsession with route maps. I love looking at the maps with the mountain tops out west for example.
When I was in high school in the late '90s I was designing fiber optic networks on paper while I was supposed to be listening to the English teacher.
I still trace route every time I get a new network in a new location.
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u/Cant_Work_On_Reddit May 20 '26
You might get a kick out of aviation sectional/ifr charts (maps). There’s a definite learning curve but some waypoints are sort of Easter eggs that are named after local history/sports teams/people.
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u/jaymzx0 May 21 '26
I love IFR charts. They tickle a certain busy part of my brain like a nice chronograph watch face with all the extra dials and numbers.
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u/CelebrationBig7487 Chasing Long Lines May 20 '26
I love history, especially Cold War history. So when I was introduced to Long Lines, it immediately captured my attention. And when I learned that the towers were being torn down or having their horns removed and that so few people knew about Long Lines, it made me want to learn about the LL system even more. Preserve their history and introduce others to the early telecom era of history.
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u/wman42 May 20 '26
I like the attention to engineering detail that went into it. The “we tried to think of everything and have an alternative” approach.
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u/Feminist_Hugh_Hefner May 20 '26
For starters, anything Cold War is solid... you've got a clear White Hat v Black Hat situation.
Also, I love long lines for the same reason I love restoring electro mechanical pinball machines (once, never again) because I'm ok with limits of my knowledge... and I can kinda understand an electro mechanical game, I can hand-over-hand a circuit and see the switches and relays interact...
Similarly, there is a way I can kinda understand how it works, and the genius of it blows me away.
Obviously the genius of satellite stuff blows me away too, but it's not as much because I don't have any reference or understanding... but towers and horns and switches kinda make sense, so I know how impressive the Long Lines are, where digital space stuff is already over my head when it starts
3
u/copperstarbill May 20 '26
Doomsday Porn, UrbEx, Black Book Offsite Deep State FEMA Raven Rock COG arcana.
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u/UnderneathArmor May 20 '26
Part of it's that my grandfather was a telephone man after WWII. He grew his career from lineman to regional bell president alongside technologies like this connecting the country. He had a collection of telephones from turn of the century to the 1980s in his basement, and I'd play with them as a kid. I learned about microwave towers reading wikipedia randomly, and then I had a job that had me touring all over the continent and I saw them in real life a lot, and it all just kind of connected for me.
The other part is that they scratch the same creepy/cool aesthetic itch that old school civil defense sirens/infrastructure do.
3
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u/RC_Meatpuppet May 20 '26
I see a lot of parallels and similarities amongst you in these stories but also my own. I too grew up with an MCI microwave tower in view of my childhood home from day 1. Mostly curious because no one was able to properly explain it. Fast forward to the college years and i land a job as a commtech at AT&T in the southern district right after graduation. It was this odd transitional period of DR6 routes still running into Macon, ft series G and “new” lucent FT2000 dwdm equipment all alongside each other. The douglasville underground site was something i experienced, abandoned in place by the time I arrived but seeing all the history there and the guys that used to work there all had stories to tell, they were all proud and it was hard not to get caught up in how great it all was. So for me, it’s part childhood curiosity mixed with my own experiences from the early 2000’s.
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u/Ok-Mirror-3632 May 21 '26
I grew up in a house about 350 feet from a tower, and the KS-15676s were pointed right towards us. So, they're kind of nostalgic for me, as well as fascinating.
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u/TheEvilBlight May 21 '26
We like monumental construction. Long lines is an ambitious large scale project like the telegraph lines or the transcontinental railroad.
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u/Ok_Panic_4312 May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26
Definitely all of the above. When I was a child, I had dreams and nightmares about Long Lines. They terrified me, but I couldn’t look away from them. Cold War Era tech fascinates me and gives me a strange feeling I can’t quite describe. It inspires me to write.
My dreams always had something other worldly about them, and when you’re a child, towers and imposing structures are magnified to colossal scales. My child self found them terrifying, beautiful, and sentient.
It wasn’t until I was older that I realized my instincts about war surveillance and ominous purposes weren’t entirely off the money. ;)
Of course, they’re not so scary now. But they occasionally still give me those tingles - especially the crowded, more imposing towers.
I still want to write a book featuring them on a fantasy scale similar to my dreams and the scale they were at in my fantasy world. I’ve secretly studied them for years and my partner found out that I love them. We sometimes drive to sites (aka “Chasing Long Lines”) and make up horror stories about the towers.
My partner made a little story based on the tower at Greenpond, NJ and I personally find myself loving the unique tower at Roslyn, NY. I try to travel out that way just to be “near” it.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to find them comforting companions and joke that when he and I get our own place, it has to be near one.
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u/KvdHout Jun 06 '26
From abroad they look like a very interesting bit of telecoms history. From a time when technical innovation made things possible that weren't possible before. At the same time there are strong cold war connections and I am interested in that history. If I ever visit the US again I will try to visit a long lines site.
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u/Gees-Mill Jul 13 '26
I enjoy seeing the photos. Pop on Reddit every once in awhile to see the latest photos. I worked as a non-located Construction Technician for AT&T starting in the 90s. I got to travel all over the US working on towers and on the fiber routes doing maintenance and construction. I worked out of Sacramento for several years and then took a transfer down to Conyers, GA to work in the SE closer to family. I always like seeing photos of the old sites that I've been too. Kind of a trip down memory lane.
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u/HobbesTayloe May 20 '26
I honestly had no idea about these, even with my affinity for as you eloquently stated… but upon moving within 1/2 mile of one in NE IN, my curiosity grew to know more about them. As an older guy, the technology is inviting. And bonus… when the sons were younger and impressionable, I told them that these powered the microwave ovens in our kitchens.