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Love seeing these get brought up. It's a really fascinating system from an era when communications infrastructure was a bit more visible. It's one of those thin

Love seeing these get brought up. It's a really fascinating system from an era when communications infrastructure was a bit more visible. It's one of those things where, once you learn it exists, you'll start seeing them (the towers/horns) popping up all over the place. My favorite AT&T artifact, though, has gotta be the Project Offices: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Offices https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Offices The gist of it seems to be that these are secure, physically guarded, literal underground bunkers built into the tops of mountains along the East Coast, housing troposcatter antennas and satellite dishes. Super cool. As far as I can tell, nobody ever truly figured out exactly what they're for, and most are still operational today. I tried driving up to one once, out of curiosity, and there are some pretty intimidating "stay out of here" signs and cameras, even at the very base of the mountain. Chances are they were simply just meant for the military AUTOVON network, mentioned near the top of this thread. But I suppose that doesn't explain why they're still operational nowadays. https://coldwar-c4i.net/ATT_Project/index.html https://coldwar-c4i.net/ATT_Project/index.html (Funny enough, this website is maintained by the same Albert LaFrance who runs long-lines.net, mentioned in the article) https://coldwar-c4i.net/ATT_Project/VA01/ATTsiteB.html https://coldwar-c4i.net/ATT_Project/VA01/ATTsiteB.html This one is actually decommissioned and has pictures of the inside: https://coldwar-c4i.net/ATT_Project/Buckingham/index.html https://coldwar-c4i.net/ATT_Project/Buckingham/index.html Super interesting stuff, IMO

deleted 5y ago
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js2 5y ago
Wild. I've lived 30 minutes from the one in Chatham for 15 years and never heard of it before. https://www.flickr.com/photos/legeros/albums/72157691603482592 https://www.flickr.com/photos/legeros/albums/721576916034825... http://www.thetownofliberty.com/2018/01/the-mystery-of-big-hole-road-in-chatham.html http://www.thetownofliberty.com/2018/01/the-mystery-of-big-h...
- ipdashc 5y ago
  Yeah they're crazy. Super obscure bits of infrastructure and Cold War history. It's interesting to me how all the signs in that Flickr album say "People" instead of "Personnel" (Delivery People, Authorized People Only). Was this an AT&T thing?
walrus01 5y ago
The project offices are kind of within the same context as sites like Site R (Raven rock) and other underground infrastructure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raven_Rock_Mountain_Complex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raven_Rock_Mountain_Complex
- ipdashc 5y ago
  For sure. Raven Rock is badass. As a kid my family used to go skiing in the area (Liberty mtn) so it blew my mind when I found out (via the Internet) that there was an "underground Pentagon" nearby. Fun fact if you're curious about this stuff: Site R is pretty well-known, but slightly more obscure is the "Site C"[1] radio outpost atop Quirauk Mountain a few miles away. It's kind of funny since High Rock is a crowded day-trip destination, being right on the Appalachian Trail and all, but then just a few yards away at the edge of the parking lot, there's some stern-looking security dudes guarding the Site C access road. Also, Site R supposedly links into the "Presidential Emergency Facilities"[2] network, a bunch of weird grain-silo-looking structures historically used for communications and relocation https://coldwar-c4i.net/PEF/ https://coldwar-c4i.net/PEF/ The DMV area is dotted with all sorts of fun "spooky" stuff. I've always wanted to make some kind of website or map summarizing it all. coldwar-c4i.net is awesome and contains crazy amounts of information, but is admittedly pretty cluttered. [1] https://aboutsiter.blogspot.com/2015/06/site-c.html https://aboutsiter.blogspot.com/2015/06/site-c.html [2] https://coldwar-c4i.net/PEF/presidential_emergency_facilities_microwave_network_2.pdf https://coldwar-c4i.net/PEF/presidential_emergency_facilitie...
310260 5y ago
>It's one of those things where, once you learn it exists, you'll start seeing them (the towers/horns) popping up all over the place. Personally, I feel the same way about cell sites today. There's a surprisingly enthusiastic community online for keeping tabs on them and tracking site design changes/upgrades. Cellmapper.net is the homebase these days and their subreddit has tons of posts asking the community to identify sites based on pictures of the equipment.
jagged-chisel 5y ago
From your second link: > requested that the names and exact locations of active AT&T network facilities not be published. Three minutes on Google Maps is all the effort it takes...

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js2 5y ago

Wild. I've lived 30 minutes from the one in Chatham for 15 years and never heard of it before. https://www.flickr.com/photos/legeros/albums/72157691603482592 https://www.flickr.com/photos/legeros/albums/721576916034825... http://www.thetownofliberty.com/2018/01/the-mystery-of-big-hole-road-in-chatham.html http://www.thetownofliberty.com/2018/01/the-mystery-of-big-h...

ipdashc 5y ago
Yeah they're crazy. Super obscure bits of infrastructure and Cold War history. It's interesting to me how all the signs in that Flickr album say "People" instead of "Personnel" (Delivery People, Authorized People Only). Was this an AT&T thing?

walrus01 5y ago

The project offices are kind of within the same context as sites like Site R (Raven rock) and other underground infrastructure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raven_Rock_Mountain_Complex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raven_Rock_Mountain_Complex

ipdashc 5y ago
For sure. Raven Rock is badass. As a kid my family used to go skiing in the area (Liberty mtn) so it blew my mind when I found out (via the Internet) that there was an "underground Pentagon" nearby. Fun fact if you're curious about this stuff: Site R is pretty well-known, but slightly more obscure is the "Site C"[1] radio outpost atop Quirauk Mountain a few miles away. It's kind of funny since High Rock is a crowded day-trip destination, being right on the Appalachian Trail and all, but then just a few yards away at the edge of the parking lot, there's some stern-looking security dudes guarding the Site C access road. Also, Site R supposedly links into the "Presidential Emergency Facilities"[2] network, a bunch of weird grain-silo-looking structures historically used for communications and relocation https://coldwar-c4i.net/PEF/ https://coldwar-c4i.net/PEF/ The DMV area is dotted with all sorts of fun "spooky" stuff. I've always wanted to make some kind of website or map summarizing it all. coldwar-c4i.net is awesome and contains crazy amounts of information, but is admittedly pretty cluttered. [1] https://aboutsiter.blogspot.com/2015/06/site-c.html https://aboutsiter.blogspot.com/2015/06/site-c.html [2] https://coldwar-c4i.net/PEF/presidential_emergency_facilities_microwave_network_2.pdf https://coldwar-c4i.net/PEF/presidential_emergency_facilitie...

310260 5y ago

>It's one of those things where, once you learn it exists, you'll start seeing them (the towers/horns) popping up all over the place. Personally, I feel the same way about cell sites today. There's a surprisingly enthusiastic community online for keeping tabs on them and tracking site design changes/upgrades. Cellmapper.net is the homebase these days and their subreddit has tons of posts asking the community to identify sites based on pictures of the equipment.

jagged-chisel 5y ago

From your second link: > requested that the names and exact locations of active AT&T network facilities not be published. Three minutes on Google Maps is all the effort it takes...