Sutro Tower: San Francisco's least appreciated landmark

#1

Post by stevewilhelm » Wed, Mar 11, 2015, 6:34 PM UTC

Sutro Tower: San Francisco's least appreciated landmark
sutrotower.org

Re: Sutro Tower: San Francisco's least appreciated landmark

#2

Post by archagon » Thu, Mar 12, 2015, 12:43 AM UTC

It's too bad the tower isn't open to the public. I bet the views from the top are incredible. (As evidenced: http://kiehart.tumblr.com/post/74847934277/up-above-it-all-s...)

Re: Sutro Tower: San Francisco's least appreciated landmark

#3

Post by shijie » Thu, Mar 12, 2015, 12:55 AM UTC

I live in the Twin Peaks neighborhood, and regularly run up to Sutro Tower on my morning workout. You can get surprisingly close to it, and there's an oval track adjacent to the tower where you can run. Highly recommend! It's quite breathtaking looking up at it from the ground, in a strange way.

Re: Sutro Tower: San Francisco's least appreciated landmark

#4

Post by Cr3w » Thu, Mar 12, 2015, 1:00 AM UTC

Sorry, but I don't like it. I think it looks ugly and you can see it practically from everywhere. I never liked it...

Re: Sutro Tower: San Francisco's least appreciated landmark

#5

Post by quesera » Thu, Mar 12, 2015, 1:13 AM UTC

Sutro Tower is one of my favorite radio towers in the world. The design is unique and beautiful. I have a thing for aviation orange, I guess.

On a purely pragmatic level, Mount Sutro (née Parnassus) is the only place to put radio antennae in San Francisco. They could have built the standard array of 1000' standalone guyed towers, but instead they went to great effort to come up with a distinctive design.

Either way, the tower(s) were going to get built, and would be visible from every point in the city, so I feel lucky that they didn't take the easy way out.

Re: Sutro Tower: San Francisco's least appreciated landmark

#6

Post by simoncion » Thu, Mar 12, 2015, 1:27 AM UTC

archagon wrote: post #2

It's too bad the tower isn't open to the public. I bet the views from the top are incredible. (As evidenced: http://kiehart.tumblr.com/post/74847934277/up-above-it-all-s... )

Are you aware of any active microwave communication towers [0] that are open to the public?

[0] This means structures whose primary purpose to to act as a communication tower, rather than a tourist attraction (Eiffel Tower) or office building (er, every tall office building ever?).

Re: Sutro Tower: San Francisco's least appreciated landmark

#7

Post by ccvannorman » Thu, Mar 12, 2015, 1:33 AM UTC

is THAT what it's called! I have a 1/30th scale model in our home. My grandfather calls it the Devil's Pitchfork :P

Re: Sutro Tower: San Francisco's least appreciated landmark

#8

Post by ryguytilidie » Thu, Mar 12, 2015, 1:43 AM UTC

I always say that Sutro tower is way more "San Francisco" than Coit Tower. Coit Tower is pretty much just a tourist destination whereas every time I'm traveling and get back to SF, I feel at home when I see that big antenna.

Re: Sutro Tower: San Francisco's least appreciated landmark

#9

Post by nevir » Thu, Mar 12, 2015, 1:45 AM UTC

ccvannorman wrote: post #7

is THAT what it's called! I have a 1/30th scale model in our home. My grandfather calls it the Devil's Pitchfork :P

My friends all call it The Claw :P

Re: Sutro Tower: San Francisco's least appreciated landmark

#10

Post by simonebrunozzi » Thu, Mar 12, 2015, 2:00 AM UTC

I always call it Twin Peaks. I guess it's wrong.