the.com/broadcast tower
a steel needle stitching invisible signals into every living room within reach
means A tall structure, usually steel and lattice-framed, built to transmit radio or television signals across a wide area.
from A compound of "broadcast" and "tower." "Broadcast" began life on the farm: to broadcast seed was to scatter it widely by hand, from Old English "brād" (broad) plus "cast" (to throw). In the early 20th century, when radio learned to fling sound across the air the way a sower flings grain, the old farming word was reborn for the new medium. "Tower" comes through Old English "torr" from Latin "turris," a lofty building. So the phrase quietly preserves an image of a sower standing high, casting signals broad over the land.
- sky giants
- Tallest exceed 600 meters, dwarfing most skyscrapers
- guy wires
- Thin cables, not the mast, hold them upright
- collapse risk
- One severed guy wire can topple the entire structure
- bird hazard
- Towers kill millions of migrating birds yearly
- red lights
- Aviation beacons blink to warn passing aircraft
cn tower — toronto, canada; 553.3m tall, completed 1976, held world record for tallest free-standing structure
tokyo skytree — tokyo, japan; 634m tall, completed 2012, currently second-tallest broadcasting structure in world
kvly-tv mast — blanchard, north dakota; 628.8m tall, completed 1963, tallest structure in western hemisphere