1000 feet. That is how tall our candelabra tower is. However, when it was first built it was only 730 feet tall. In 1959 this was the maximum height the FAA would allow. Just a few years after it was built, permission was granted by the FAA to raise the tower to the original design height of 1000 feet. I thought it would be interesting to talk about some of the engineering that went into the tower. It was designed to withstand peak wind velocities of 165 miles per hour. The steel used is a special high nickel-chrome-alloy, which is several times stronger than ordinary steel, and is less corrosive in city atmospheres. Over 500 tons of this steel was used. The 3 legs of the tower are solid steel 7 inches in diameter. The tower is supported by 24 guy wires, which is total of 14,700 feet of cable, each have a breaking strength of 423,000 pounds. The concrete anchors measure 33 feet wide and are 16 feet in the ground. The base of the tower rests on a hexagon shaped concrete pier that starts 20 feet below the ground. The pier was designed for a thrust of 3,800,000 and a sideways sheer of 68,000,000 pounds. To construct these piers, a continuous pour of 2,250 tons of concrete was used. This amount of concrete is hard to visualize. It took a line of concrete trucks spaced six minutes apart, fifteen hours to fill just one of the four holes. At the top of the tower rests the antenna platform. This triangular shaped platform measures 105 feet on each side and is 16 feet tall. Large 140 feet knee braces support the corners of the platform just below each of the stations 20,000 pound, 100 feet long antennas. A two-man elevator was installed inside of the triangular legs and travels to the top through the center of the platform entering the round penthouse that houses radio gear at the top of the tower. Standing at the top on a clear day, the mountains of Frederick Maryland can be seen in the distance. JOHN JACOB