"Cartwheel" Tower, Fort Reno, Washington, DC, 2020.
"Cartwheel" Tower, Fort Reno, Washington, DC, 2020.
"Cartwheel" Tower, Fort Reno, Washington, DC, 2020.
All the now-declassified pixels at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/49576247768
#photography
Captured 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.
Despite CARTWHEEL being located in the middle of a residential neighborhood in a busy city and staffed by military personnel, officials went to great lengths to conceal the true purpose of these towers. They hid in plain sight, appearing to be silos or water towers (they even used civilian water trucks to send crews to some of the towers).
It was only after the cold war ended that the details of the network were declassified.
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IMHO that's a pretty lame job of hiding something. Never seen a watertower on a hilltop with a large building next to it. Also water tanks on hilltops aren't tall and skinny as the location provides the height. But sites like this are interesting. So much money and work just gone. At least the FAA could make use of one@[email protected] Your complaint is noted. I’ll get right on it.
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Not a complaint. And unlike the previous jackass I don't think you had anything to do with it. (note: I'm not saying I'm not a jackass, just not the size or type of the other jackass)