I find it very interesting how skyscrapers that are considered short today, were once host to numerous transmitter towers and beacons. Many included directions for aircraft to the area's regional airport. Others have special weather displays or time pieces.
POST any photographs you have of these archaic ephemeral beacons/antennas in your city/region.
Chicago is most famous for the 2,000,000 candle-power Lindbergh beacon atop the Palmolive (old Playboy) Building.
The beacon could be seen by pilots as far away as Cleveland and St. Louis (so it's been said). Something I didn't know, until recently, was that the beacon had TWO beams of light. One was a rotating 360 degree beam (correct me if I'm wrong), and the other (the one I didn't know about) was a stationary beam aimed at Midway Airport (Chicago Municipal Airport at the time) 8 miles southwest of the Loop.
Hedrich-Blessing
This is a slide from 1958, photographer unknown.
unknown
Below: A smaller 'sister' aviation beacon was atop the 41 story Lasalle-Wacker Building
This photograph is looking north from the Chicago Board of Trade Observatory.
That's the Lasalle-Wacker beacon on the left, and on the right is the steeple of the 568 foot Chicago Temple Building (highest chapel in the world).
This is the Lasalle-Wacker Building in the foreground, with the Palmolive Building in the northern distance (just to the left of Lasalle-Wacker).
Here is Lasalle Wacker on the far left, and the Palmolive 'Lindbergh' beacon far right. In the center is the radiant Wrigley Building (1920)
The transmission tower on Marina City was very unique.
The WLS tower was a GIANT thermometer, with red lights running vertically.
The thermometer would rise and fall according to the current weather.
1967, photographer unknown.
1967, photographer unknown.
1967, a cropped version of a Cushman/Indiana University archive.
The black and gold tower is the 503 foot Carbide and Carbon Building from 1929 (today, it's the Hard Rock Hotel),
even this tower had an antenna. Does anyone have any information on it?.
photographer unknown
Here is a rare color shot of the 'thermometer' atop Marina City.
Below: A tank with a beacon and directions pointing the way to Chicago Municipal Airport (Midway)
unknown
Pretty cool huh.
POST your photographs everyone!