Hughes Memorial Tower
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The Hughes Memorial Tower is a radio tower, located in Washington, DC at 6001 Georgia Avenue, near the intersetion of 9th Street, NW, and Peabody Street, NW. Built on January 15, 1989, the tower is positioned at a latitude of 38° 57' 44.0" North and a longitude of 77° 01' 35.0" West and an elevation of 87.7 meters, 287.7 feet above mean sea level. The tower is owned by the District of Columbia Office of Property Management and is used 1) to propagate the WDCW Channel 50 television signal and 2) for radio communication by the Washington DC Police Department for on the 460 MHz frequency band. The tower may be the tallest structure in Washington DC, standing at 761 feet (232 meters) tall. Its height surpasses the Washington Monument by more than 200 feet and the WTTG Television Tower by 55 feet. The tower is registered with the FCC as structure number 1036576.[1]
The Hughes Memorial Tower is a three-legged, free-standing, star tower, similar to those built in 1936 for the Naval Radio Transmitter Facility in Annapolis, Maryland and in 1991 for WSTR-TV in Cincinnati, Ohio. The tower features nine strobe beacons, situated on each of the tower's legs at one beacon per 200 feet. These beacons are synchronized to flash at one-second intervals.
In 1998, the National Capital Planning Commission approved a plan to use the Hughes Memorial Tower as part of a 911-service upgrade. In doing so, it noted that the tower was constructed without its prior permission and has caused "concern about the effect of the tower on the views of the major monuments and memorials in the Nation’s Capital."[2] The tower also generates criticisms among nearby neighborhoods in Ward 4; during the winter months, the police "frequently have to close the streets next to this tower because of the risk[s] posed by falling ice."[3]
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