Sutro Tower
| Sutro Tower | |
|---|---|
 Sutro Tower viewed from Grandview Park in San Francisco |
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 Location within United States San Francisco Central
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| General information | |
| Type | Radio mast |
| Location | San Francisco, California |
| Address | 1 La Avanzada Drive Clarendon Heights |
| Coordinates | 37°45′19″N 122°27′10″W / 37.7552°N 122.4528°W |
| Elevation | 553 m (1,814 ft) |
| Completed | 1973 |
| Height | 299.01 m (981.0 ft) |
| Technical details | |
| Structural system | Truss tower |
| Design and construction | |
| Owner | Sutro Tower, Inc. |
| References | |
| [1][2][3] | |
Sutro Tower is a 299 m (981 ft) three-pronged antenna tower near Clarendon Heights in San Francisco, California. Rising from a hill between Twin Peaks and Mount Sutro, it is a prominent part of the city skyline and a landmark for city residents and visitors. However, many local people opposed the tower even before it was completed, including criticism of the aesthetic effect the tower would have on the rest of San Francisco. San Francisco writer Herb Caen once wrote, “I keep waiting for it to stalk down the hill and attack the Golden Gate Bridge.”[4] Acknowledging both displeasure and affection for its undeniable prominence on the city's skyline, it is sometimes referred to light-heartedly as the Sutro Monster.
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[edit] Purpose
Before the construction of Sutro Tower, television reception in San Francisco was spotty because the many hills of the city would block the line-of-sight television signal. The great height of the new tower helped to resolve that problem. Transmitters had been scattered throughout the Bay Area, including at San Bruno Mountain, Mt. Allison, Monument Peak, and Mt. Diablo. By having all the main Bay Area television station transmitters in one location, reception was improved by allowing a receiving antenna pointed in a single direction to receive all those stations rather than a subset. However, after the NBC affiliation was transferred to KNTV, that station chose to broadcast from San Bruno Mountain which is five miles south of Sutro Tower. This requires viewers in some locations to reorient their antenna in order to receive the NBC programming.
[edit] Construction
Construction commenced in 1971 by Kline Tower of Columbia, South Carolina, and the tower was completed in 1973, with the first transmissions on July 4, 1973. Approximately 3,750 m3 (132,000 cu ft) of concrete were used to make the foundation of the 3.7 million pound (1,700 tonne) tower. Earthquake proofing includes ballasting two thirds of the weight of the structure below ground, resulting in a center of gravity at sixteen feet below ground level. It is used to transmit the signals of eleven television stations and four FM radio stations and for various other communications services.
The tower is owned by Sutro Tower, Inc., which in turn is owned by a consortium of the four major television broadcasters in San Francisco; KTVU (owned by Cox Enterprises), KRON-TV (owned by the San Francisco Chronicle at the time of the tower's completion, now owned by Young Broadcasting), KPIX (a former Group W property, now owned by CBS Corporation) and KGO-TV (an ABC-owned station). Sutro Tower also leases space to other Bay Area radio and television stations, including PBS outlet KQED, independent station KOFY-TV and KBCW, a sister station to KPIX.
Two other Bay Area TV stations are unable to be located at Sutro Tower -- the NBC owned KSTS, and KTVU's duopoly partner KICU-TV. They transmit from east of Fremont in order to serve Oakland and the East Bay, and San Jose and the South Bay -- their respective cities of license.
Named after Adolph Sutro, a businessman and former mayor of San Francisco who had a mansion located about 100 feet away from where the tower is now located, the tower stands 299 m (981 ft) above ground and 552 m (1,811 ft) above sea level. It is the tallest structure in the city, surpassing the 258.4 m (848 ft) Transamerica Pyramid by more than 39 m (128 ft). In addition, it is built on one of the highest peaks in the city, the old site of the Sutro Mansion owned by Adolph Sutro's descendants.
The original design of the tower called for white lights longitudinally rising along its three legs to the top. When opened, these lights were lit. However local resistance and aesthetic considerations forced the operators to turn off the lights and they have never been used since.[citation needed]
[edit] Views and access
The facility is accessible only by authorized vehicles. The area near the site offers beautiful panoramic viewpoints of San Francisco. There is a platform near the top of the tower, 232 m (761 ft) above ground. Only authorized maintenance workers can access the tower via a small two-person elevator that runs inside the west tower enclosed leg. There is no public access within the Sutro Tower property lines.
On a clear day, the tower can be seen from the East Bay peak of Mount Diablo and is sometimes the only part of San Francisco seen above the coastal fog when it is blown inland, typically on summer mornings and evenings.
[edit] Significance
Despite the initial revulsion of residents, Sutro Tower is now mostly tolerated by locals and figures in local art, TV, and movies as one of the architectural symbols of the city. A local entertainment guide, SF Station.com uses it as its logo, as well as the collaborative art game, SF0.org, and SF based Ultimate Frisbee team Jam, 2008 UPA National Champions.
[edit] In popular culture
- The tower is an important presence in the 1977 San Francisco horror novel Our Lady of Darkness by Fritz Leiber.
- The video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas contains a radio tower that bears a striking resemblance to Sutro Tower.
- It is also seen in Midway's 1997 game San Francisco Rush.
[edit] References
- ^ Sutro Tower at Emporis
- ^ Sutro Tower at SkyscraperPage
- ^ Sutro Tower at Structurae
- ^ Herb Caen. "Sutro Tower Press Coverage". http://www.sutro.org/Pages/x6.html. Retrieved 1 September 2010.
[edit] Further reading
- Barnett, Stephen R. (May 1973). "The Colossus of Mt. Sutro". San Francisco vol. 15 (no. 5). http://www.sutro.org/Pages/x6.html. Retrieved 3 September 2010.
- Cotter, Mark P. (January 2012). "SUTRO! The High Ground". CreateSpace. https://www.createspace.com/.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sutro Tower |
- Official Site of Sutro Tower, Inc
- Listing 1001289 in the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Antenna Structure Registration database
- Flickr: Photos tagged with "sutrotower"
- Sutro Tower and Mount Sutro at sutrotower.org
- Antennae diagrams indicating which stations broadcast from Sutro
- User page with information about Sutro Tower
- Sutro Tower Community Perspectives
