Matt Blaze"CARTWHEEL" Tower, Fort Reno, Washington, DC, 2020.
All the pixels, none of the microwave radiation, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/49576247768
Captured with the Rodenstock 23mm/5.6 HR Digaron-S lens (@ f/6,3), Phase One IQ4-150 back (@ ISO 50), Phase One XT camera (1/25 sec exposure).
This unassuming cylindrical tower, at first glance perhaps a grain silo or water tower, was part of a secret "continuity of government" microwave communications network. Built in the early 1960's, a network of similar towers located around the capital region linked the White House with critical sites such as Camp David, Raven Rock, and Mount Weather.
The upper white section of the tower is actually a plexiglass radome, concealing various microwave and UHF radio antennas.
CARTWHEEL and its cousins were decommissioned around 1990. Most of the towers, mainly atop mountains in remote areas, were demolished or left to rot. However, CARTWHEEL and CORKSCREW (on a mountain near the Appalachian trail in central Maryland) have been maintained in good condition, now repurposed by the FAA.
Despite CARTWHEEL being located in the middle of a residential neighborhood in a busy city and staffed by military personnel, officials went to great lengths to conceal the true purpose of these towers. They hid in plain sight, appearing to be silos or water towers (they even used civilian water trucks to send crews to some of the towers).
It was only after the cold war ended that the details of the network were declassified.
Obsolete secret infrastructure like CARTWHEEL tower, only revealed decades later, intrigues me not just for its scale and design, but also for the obvious question it gives rise to. If this stuff effectively managed to stay unnoticed for decades, what newer secrets are hiding under our noses today?
Howard Chu @ Symas@mattblaze maybe a real Men in Black HQ... https://meninblack.fandom.com/wiki/Men_in_Black_Headquarters
Men in Black Headquarters
—K to J upon giving the address. The Men in Black Headquarters is the main base of the Men in Black. It is located at 504 Battery Drive in New York City, in the films, and changes locations in the animated series. The HQ is a pivotal role in the organization, and it is where the agents and aliens meet. From the outside, it appears to be just another building, and when you go inside, it still is just another building. It has two large fans, and a lone guard sitting in a chair, and a lone...
FreddyB Aviation Photography@mattblaze THere are quite a few out there. The best known is the Greenbriar resort which was a major COG facility in plain sight
@cvvhrn The Greenbrier bunker (now a secure document repository) tour is a worthwhile experience.
Chuck@mattblaze When I was a much younger person, one of my summer jobs was 'mud man' (mixing mortar) for a company that built block walls in the Las Vegas area. At that time, all of these companies would dump their excess bricks in the desert after they were done with a job and there were places with lots and lots of bricks. I imagined it would be 'fun' to build a huge mysterious structure out in the desert out of these bricks so that future generations would wonder about them ... 😃
Khleedril@mattblaze I'm generally a big fan of your work, but that picture is frankly horrible in many ways. Mostly I think the overwhelming sky kills it, but the composition generally is a mess.
@khleedril I do the best I can with the skills I have.
curtosis@mattblaze Every time I see this one I am compelled to go window shopping for equivalent FOV lenses for my camera.* I just love what that width offers compositionally, as this shot aptly shows.
*Ok in truth it /starts/ by looking at medium- and large-format digital backs, but then my bank reminds me of our relationship.
@curtosis There are some fine rectilinear ultra wides for 35mm format. Check out Voightlander.
@mattblaze My current is Fuji, so that Voigtlander 18mm is on my list. :)
Or if I break down and grab a used Z6, their 15mm Heliar.