Demolishing a 300-foot electrical tower by cutting the guy-wires - GIF

[Paul Alciatore]

Classic method or taking a tall tower down; IF the area under and around it is clear. But someone has to clean up the mess. It is best to have that arranged FIRST.

As a former TV chief engineer, I hate to see this on the internet. Not everybody knows just how vulnerable these towers are. A 1000 foot tower can be a million dollar investment and unfortunately not all of them have open fields or woods around them. I have seen them in the center of a trailer park. If those came down there would be many deaths. A tall tower falls in a relatively small area like a wet noodle, but the guy wires (think 1" diameter steel cables under a lot of tension) can whip around quite a bit. A trailer would be cut in two by one of them without slowing down. That city was nuts to allow that.