Tokyo Tower

Tokyo, 1958, 333 meters. Japan's postwar TV boom needed one tall mast so each station would not have to build its own, and this steel lattice, completed that December, was the answer. The orange and white bands are not decoration: aviation rules require them on structures this tall. For more than half a century it carried Tokyo's television, until the city's high-rises and the switch to all-digital broadcasting moved the main TV signals to the taller Tokyo Skytree. FM radio antennas, added in 1961, sit below the TV array. This 2023 view from above shows how close the surrounding towers now come to its main deck.