The Gettysburg National Tower was a hyperboloid

observation tower An observation tower is a structure used to view events from a long distance and to create a full 360 degree range of vision to conduct long distance observations. Observation towers are usually at least tall and are made from stone, iron, an ...

that overlooked the

Gettysburg National Military Park The Gettysburg National Military Park protects and interprets the landscape of the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. Located in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the park is managed by the National Park Service. The GNMP propert ...

and

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Gettysburg (; non-locally ) is a borough and the county seat of Adams County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The Battle of Gettysburg (1863) and President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address are named for this town. Gettysburg is home to th ...

, from 1974 to 2000. The privately owned tower attracted many of the battlefield's visitors, who paid a fee to access its observation decks. Controversial even before it opened, the structure was eventually seized by

eminent domain Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...

and demolished.

History

The tower was built in 1974 on private land adjacent to the Gettysburg National Military Park by real-estate developer Thomas R. Ottenstein. It was opposed by many, including the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

, historical preservationists, and locals. The governor of

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

at the time,

Milton Shapp Milton Jerrold Shapp (born Milton Jerrold Shapiro; June 25, 1912 – November 24, 1994) was an American businessman and politician who served as the 40th governor of Pennsylvania from 1971 to 1979 and the first Jewish governor of Pennsylvania. H ...

, led unsuccessful lawsuits against construction of the tower. The Park Service had no authority over the tower since it was not inside the park. A law passed in 1990 claimed the land of the tower as part of the park and in June 2000 a federal judge gave park officials permission to seize the tower itself with $3 million given as compensation to the owners. The Gettysburg National Tower was demolished with explosives by Controlled Demolition, Inc. for the National Park Service on July 3, 2000 at 5:03 PM, the 137th anniversary of the final day of the

Battle of Gettysburg The Battle of Gettysburg () was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. In the battle, Union Major General George Meade's Army of the Po ...

. The public was invited to attend the demolition, and an event was staged to make it appear as though cannon fire caused the tower to fall.

Construction and design

The tower had a patented hyperboloid design, which was checked by computer simulation on a

CDC 6600 The CDC 6600 was the flagship of the 6000 series of mainframe computer systems manufactured by Control Data Corporation. Generally considered to be the first successful supercomputer, it outperformed the industry's prior recordholder, the IBM ...

mainframe to verify its integrity. The bottom diameter was , it narrowed to in the middle, and spread outward for a top diameter of . The main pieces were assembled using the largest crane available at the time and were bolted together rather than welded. During the debate regarding the tower, its engineer, Joel Rosenblatt, argued that its design was significant enough for preservation in its own right. Running up inside the hyperbolic lattice were elevators and a 520-step staircase leading to the observation decks. The observation area consisted of two air-conditioned indoor levels and two open-air decks at the very top, featuring binoculars and information about the historical significance of the sights. Ottenstein hailed it as a "classroom in the sky", but detractors said its size and visibility made it overly prominent.

References

{{Reflist, 30em Towers completed in 1974 Demolished buildings and structures in Pennsylvania Gettysburg Battlefield Former towers Towers in Pennsylvania Hyperboloid structures Buildings and structures demolished in 2000 1974 establishments in Pennsylvania 2000 disestablishments in Pennsylvania