Haikū Valley is an amphitheater-shaped valley on the windward side of the Koolau Range behind Kāneohe,

Oahu Oahu (, , sometimes written Oahu) is the third-largest and most populated island of the Hawaiian Islands and of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital, Honolulu, is on Oahu's southeast coast. The island of Oahu and the uninhabited Northwe ...

in the

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands () are an archipelago of eight major volcanic islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the Pacific Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the Hawaii (island), island of Hawaii in the south to nort ...

. The valley was the site of a

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

radio transmitting station (later taken over by the

Coast Guard A coast guard or coastguard is a Maritime Security Regimes, maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with cust ...

as an

OMEGA Navigation System Omega (, ; uppercase Ω, lowercase ω; Ancient Greek ὦ, later ὦ μέγα, Modern Greek ωμέγα) is the twenty-fourth and last letter in the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numeric system/isopsephy (gematria), it has a value of 800. The wo ...

station) and is part of the route of Hawaii's

Interstate H-3 Interstate H-3 (H-3) is an Interstate Highway located entirely within the US state of Hawaii on the island of Oʻahu. H-3 is also known as the John A. Burns Freeway, after the second governor of Hawaii. It crosses the Koʻolau Range a ...

. The Haikū Stairs (also known as "Stairway to Heaven") is a foot trail of over 3,000 metal stairs ascends to ''Puu Keahiakahoe'', a peak above the east valley wall. The stairs were originally constructed as a means of reaching the radio antenna attachment points high on the surrounding ridge line. The trail starts at an elevation of and covers an approximate horizontal distance of for an average slope of about 30 degrees (however, some sections are nearly vertical). The Haikū Stairs are closed to the public, although people still illegally trespass to experience the nearly two-hour climb. The facility initially was built following the attack on

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reci ...

as a means of communicating with U.S. Navy ships as far away as

Tokyo Bay is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan spanning the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture, on the southern coast of the island of Honshu. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. Th ...

. The facility had a massive antenna system consisting of five massive cable antennas draped from atop one mountain ridge, and across the mountain valley to the top of the other ridge. The ridges formed a horseshoe shape around the valley. The natural height of the mountain ridges made for an excellent means of having an elevated antenna system. The construction and use of the facility was initially a classified military secret. The walls of the main building were over thick and made of

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...

. The building was designed to withstand a 500 lb. bomb being dropped on the top of the building, allowing people inside to survive.

References

External links

*http://www.haikustairs.org/ The friends of Haikū Stairs website {{Coord, 21, 24, 19, N, 157, 49, 54, W , type:landmark_region:US-HI , display=title Valleys of Hawaii Landforms of Oahu