This list is populated heavily by antenna masts. The engineering aspects of super-tall masts are highly specialized. Only four companies erect the majority of such structures: Doty Moore Tower Services (Cedar Hill, Texas); Kline Towers (Columbia, South Carolina); LeBlanc Royal Telecom (Oakville, Ontario); and Stainless Inc. (North Wales, Pennsylvania). The design and construction are largely governed by RS222E Electronic Industries Alliance standards. A 1,000-foot (300 m) tall mast costs between $0.7 and $1.1 million to build, while a 2,000-foot (610 m) tall mast costs $2.4 to $4 million. Prices generally vary depending on tower capacity and wind loading specifications.
A common misperception is that landmarks such as the Stratosphere Tower are the tallest United States structures, but they are in fact the tallest buildings. Likewise, Taipei 101 was often misrepresented as the world's tallest structure (although it was the tallest occupied building, before the certification of Dubai's Burj Khalifa as such), but in fact is far eclipsed by antenna towers in over a dozen states in the United States and in other countries.
In the United States, the FAA and the FCC must approve all towers exceeding 200 feet (61 m) in height. Furthermore, it is very difficult to get permission for structures over 2,000 feet (610 m) tall. The FCC presumes them to be inconsistent with the public interest, while the FAA presumes them to be a hazard to air navigation, resulting in poor airspace usage. A significant burden of proof is placed on the applicant to show that such a structure is in the public's best interests. Only when both agencies have resolved all legal, safety, and management concerns is such an application approved.
Since 1978, the United States has maintained 11 tethered aerostats sites along the southern borders. These balloons rise to 18,000 feet (5,500 m), carrying radar units for drug interdiction purposes. However, since the balloons are aided by buoyancy and are not permanent, they are not considered true structures.
Owner: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (24.3%), SRP (21.7%), Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power (21.2%), Arizona Public Service Co. (14.0%), NV Energy (11.3%), Tucson Electric Power (7.5%)
The Navajo Generating Station, a coal-fired power plant located 4 mi (6.4 km) east of Page, has three 775 ft (236 m) lined, reinforced concrete stacks. The plant's original stacks were demolished in the late 1990s after being replaced by larger diameter stacks of the same height. The new stacks were required to accommodate cooler, saturated flue gas that resulted when wet SO2 scrubbers were added
The tallest radio tower is the 650 ft (198 m) KSZR (97.5) tower in Oro Valley near Tucson
This is the sixth-tallest structure in the world, just behind KVLY-TV mast and KRDK-TV mast in North Dakota. KXTV (ABC News 10) and KOVR (CBS 13), serve the Sacramento – Stockton – Modesto market. The tower has been used for research ozone sampling at different heights
The record is held by two towers, exactly identical, that reach 1,503 ft (458 m) tall. They are used to communicate with submarines throughout the Pacific basin. The second-tallest structure is the KHON-TV (Honolulu Fox 2) tower at 500 ft (152 m) located at 21°17′28″N157°50′08″W / 21.29111°N 157.83556°W / 21.29111; -157.83556
This tower was built to allow WAVE to reach into parts of the Cincinnati, Ohio, market, which sacrificed the western part of the Louisville DMA. They abandoned a tower in Floyds Knobs, Indiana, when the La Grange tower went on the air. They have since put their HD antenna and transmitter at the Indiana site and abandoned the La Grange tower
This tower was built in 2001 to replace WMTW's transmitting facility atop Mount Washington (New Hampshire). It began transmitting on February 5, 2002. The second-tallest structure is the WGME (CBS-13) tower in Raymond,[3] which measures 1,624 ft (495 m) tall
Year built: 1997 (Tower actually constructed in 1982 by the now defunct L.E.O. Broadcasting of St. Cloud Minnesota)
Owner: Paxson Minneapolis / KXLI
This station is licensed to St. Cloud; attempts to cover both that city and Minneapolis/St. Paul from a site between the two cities; and used to be known as KXLI-TV
The KDUH-TV tower at 1,965 ft (599 m) tall at Hemingford collapsed in early 2003 during reinforcement work. The Duhamel Broadcasting Tower Angora was constructed about 30 mi (48 km) away and was completed in September 2003. The replacement tower is 160 m (about 500 ft) shorter than the original. KXVO and KPTM in Omaha (which are co-owned) have an FCC construction permit to build a taller tower that would put their antennas 577 m (roughly 1,900 ft) up. There was also a 2,000 ft (610 m) tall mast at Hemingford, which collapsed in 2002
The BREN Tower, located in Jackass Flats (Area 25) of the Nevada Test Site, was a mast that was built for nuclear radiation testing. The 465 m (1,526 ft) tall, 345-ton structure was constructed by Columbus, Ohio-based Dresser-Ideco in 1962. It was originally erected in Yucca Flat (Area 4) before being dismantled in 1966 and moved to Area 25. The mast was owned by the Department of Energy and maintained by National Security Technologies. On May 23, 2012, the BREN Tower was demolished. The tallest structure in Nevada since mid-2012 is the Shamrock Tower in Jessup, Nevada at 446.2 m (1,464 ft) tall, erected in mid-2012. The second-tallest structure in Nevada is the Moapa Entravision Tower at Moapa, a 426.7 m (1,400 ft) tall guyed TV mast at Moapa erected in 2008, the third-tallest is the 401 m (1,316 ft) tall Moapa Kemp Tower at Moapa, the fourth-tallest is Stratosphere Tower near downtown Las Vegas, which was erected in 1994–96 and reaches 1,149 ft (350 m) and 921 ft (281 m) without the mast. It is also the second-tallest freestanding structure in the western U.S. after the Kennecott Smokestack in Utah
Tallest structure in New York was the north tower of the World Trade Center from 1973 to 2001, with an overall height including the antenna mast of 1,727 ft (526.3 m). The original World Trade Center towers were destroyed in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, temporarily making the Empire State Building the tallest building in New York, until the completion of One World Trade Center in May 2013
One World Trade Center is the tallest building in the western hemisphere, and the third-tallest building in the world by pinnacle height.
Stories: Total – 105 (86 usable above-ground floors, 91–99 and 103–104 designated as mechanical space, 100-102 observation floors, top floor designated as 105)
This tower was known as the KTHI Television Tower until June 1995. It was the fourth-tallest structure in the world, eclipsed only by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (completed in 2009), the Tokyo Sky Tree in Japan (completed in 2012) and the Shanghai Tower in China. From 1974 until its collapse in 1991, the Warsaw radio mast in Poland also eclipsed the KVLY-TV mast. This tower is used so KVLY-TV can cover both Fargo and Grand Forks. In 2019, the top mount antenna was removed, dropping the overall height to 1,987 ft (605.6 m)[8]
The KRDK-TV tower is the world's fourth-tallest man-made structure. It had collapsed three times due to winter and summer storms, though the first time it collapsed in 1968, it was caused from a Marinehelicopter cutting four guy wires of the tower. The KVLY TV tower, was the world's fourth-tallest man-made structure, is only about 5 mi (8.0 km) from the KRDK-TV tower. This tower is used so KRDK-TV can cover both Fargo and Grand Forks until 2019 when the height was reduced
There was a taller tower from 1987 or 1988 until 1994 or 1995 when it was dismantled. It belonged to WCOM-TV (Mansfield Ind 68) and was located just south of Butler, Ohio. WCOM-TV signed on March 3, 1988. The height of the tower was 1,748 ft (533 m). WCOM-TV used the tall tower and a directional antenna to try to serve the Columbus market. The station went dark in 1991 and the tower was sold to a religious broadcaster in South Carolina to be used as two separate 800 ft (240 m) towers. An engineer has reported that part of the tower was still on the ground in Sumter, South Carolina
The tower is home to WIMZ-FM 103.5, whose antenna is at the top. The tower is located 1 mi (1.6 km) east of House Mountain and stands 1,752 ft (534 m) above ground level. When used for television broadcasts by its former owner, Multimedia, Inc. (former licensee of WBIR-TV, Knoxville) it was shielded by mountains from the audience in the western Knoxville suburbs such as Farragut, Oak Ridge, and Oliver Springs. This tower was built because the owners of WBIR-TV could not obtain land atop nearby House Mountain, because the only land suitable for a television tower base on the mountain had been purchased by the station's main competitor WATE-TV, Knoxville. When completed, it was, for a short time the tallest man-made structure on Earth.
The smokestack was designed to help the Garfield smelter comply with the Clean Air Act. It is a prominent structure along the shore of the Great Salt Lake adjacent to Interstate 80, about 10 mi (16 km) west of Salt Lake City. The smoke rises to an altitude of 8,540 ft (1,689 m) MSL. The tallest non-smokestack structure is a 660 ft (201 m) radio mast near Plain City, owned by the Bible Broadcasting inc.
This Coast Guard site in Wyoming was part of the worldwide LORAN marine navigation network. The US Loran system was shut down February 8, 2010.[10] The tower was especially useful to ships plying the Great Lakes. The system radiated 540 kW of power