AT&T Long Lines

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Starting in the early 1950s, the AT&T’s Long Lines department began constructing a coast-to-coast microwave relay link. This relay link, which would become colloquially known as the Long Lines system or the “Telephone Skyway” (or just “Skyway”), would carry telephone calls and television programs from coast-to-coast.

The Long Lines microwave system would remain in service until the late 1980s and early 1990s, when they were gradually replaced with fiber optics.

Former Long Lines sites can be found in urban areas with the iconic horn antennas situated on the top of buildings and former telephone offices. However, many Long Lines sites can be found in the middle of cornfields, some far away from the nearest town. Many sites were even hardened to keep the system online in the case of a nuclear attack, to allow communication networks to stay online after an attack. Some Long Lines sites housed AUTOVON and other important defense and government-related networks from the Cold War.

While most sites have been abandoned by AT&T and stand as a reminder of the Cold War, others have been repurposed into cell phone antennas, ham radio and CB radio masts, and much more. Some of the hardened and underground stations have been turned into bunkers.

Missouri sites

My goal is to photograph former Long Lines sites in the Central/Western-Central Missouri area. Here are the ones already photographed. (Sites with asterisks were photographed by others.)

Update (5/19/2021): I’m hoping to photograph additional Long Lines sites later this summer, especially those on the western side of the state. For more information, see this update.

Missouri site pages on other websites:

Misc. Sites

Links with asterisks were photographed by others.

Links

For more information on the Long Lines system, check out my detailed entry here.

  • Long Lines.com – A collaborative site with a graphical Long Lines map, site details and photos. (Operated by the organizer of the former N3TUQ map.)
  • Long Lines.net – Albert LaFrance’s Long Lines website, a wealth of information and incredible resource.
  • r/LongLines – the AT&T Long Lines subreddit.
  • AT&T Long Lines Facebook group – a private Long Lines Facebook group, featuring detailed information, photos, and other related chat among ex-Bell System/LL employees and those interested in the network.
  • The Central Office – website with photos of Bell System/RBOC Central Offices

Updated 8-29-2024.

2018-2024, Garrett Fuller. The information and photographs, unless created by someone else and/or otherwise stated, contained in this section are listed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. My works in this section are listed in the public domain to inform of, and preserve the history of, the AT&T Long Lines network. Free, non-commercial use of my photos are OK, as long as you: provide credit (to myself — Garrett Fuller — preferably with a link back here, and/or the respective author of other photographs submitted), and “share alike” using the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.