Yekaterinburg TV Tower
High above the skyline of the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, this incomplete tower stands testament to what can be achieved with an amazing vision and poor financial planning.
At 220 metres, it is only half of its planned height of 400 metres, which would have made it one of the tallest towers in the world. It was also planned to include a revolving restaurant – something to rival the 540 metre high Ostankino Tower in Moscow.
Although construction began in 1983, by the end of the decade it had ground to a halt, much to the dismay of investors, but to the infinite joy of thrill seeking base jumpers1, made easier by the lattice-work of metal to climb inside. By 2000, the number of people tragically dying from the tower forced the authorities to weld the doors shut.
Today it remains, rather eerily over the city, as these photos show.
Thanks to Rudi.
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Warning: don’t scroll all the way to the bottom of the page, as there’s some nasty pictures down there. ↩
Might want to warn people the “thrill seeking base jumpers” link has a picture of a nice mushy person who fell from the tower at the bottom of the page!
He landed to his death alright.
There is a tower near Akron, OH that while much shorter has a similar story. It was originally to be a restaurant as well but investors ran short of money and now its just a really tall reminder to count your money before spending it on a huge pile of concrete.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Tomorrow
Ahhhh!! Why do I never listen to the warnings?!?
Metal to climb inside!