It’s hard to miss the retro-looking tower standing over 200 feet tall on Taylor Street in downtown Columbia.
Rumors claim its an old alert system in the event of a tornado or Lake Murray Dam breach. Others claim its air raid sirens from World War II. It’s none of those things.
The tower, formally called a microwave cone antenna tower, is actually owned by AT&T and is still in use today.
“It’s not your traditional cell tower,” said Ann Elsas, AT&T’s lead public relations manager for the Southeast. “They’re used for point-point relays for large quantities of data to be exchanged between two or more locations, typically data centers.”
This tower was once one of hundreds across the country, and it’s now one of few still standing and one of even fewer still in use.
Microwave cone antenna towers started populating the U.S. in the late 1940s and early 1950s as a wireless way of transmitting long-distance phone calls and coast-to-coast television, according to an article from Atlantic Magazine in 1951.
The tower on Taylor Street was built by Southern Bell, a former regional subsidy of AT&T, in 1959 and in use by 1960, according to an old article from The State in 1959.
At the time the tower was built, it was designed to connect Columbia to Sumter. Prior to its building, the only tower of its kind in South Carolina was in Charleston connecting the city to Augusta, Georgia.
It was common for towers to stand roughly 30 miles apart, but the distance could range from 15 miles to 50 miles apart.
The antennas atop the tower have been referred to as both “microwave cone antennae” and “horn reflector antennae” for good reason: the antennae use microwave signals and are shaped like horns.
Though arguably an eyesore and definitely outdated in design, there are no plans to get rid of the tower anytime soon, said city of Columbia spokesperson Justin Stevens.
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