płocki, Poland

Warsaw Radio Mast Remains

The shattered remains of the world's once tallest structure.

In Gabin Poland, lies the remains of what was quite recently the tallest structure in the world. At 646 meters (2120 feet), the Konstantynow Radio Tower, built between 1970 and 1974, stuck nearly a half-mile into the sky before it collapsed in 1991.

To put this staggering height in perspective: it was not until 2008 that the world saw a higher structure, the skyscraper Burj Dubai which has now reached a height of over 818 m (2,684 ft). The next highest structure in Europe is the Belmont TV mast, at a paltry 360 meters high.

On August 8, 1991, the 420-ton mast, which was capable of transmitting signals as far as North America, collapsed after workers botched maintenance on the guy wires holding the mast in place. The pieces fell from such a great height that some of the parts shot into the ground like missiles and stuck there. Plans to rebuild the mast were shut down after protests from local residents, naturally concerned after the stunning collapse.

The site where the world’s tallest man-made object once stood is today a field of ruins. The huge basement on which the mast stood is still there and one can well see where the insulators carrying the mast were placed. There is still debris stuck in the ground and the concrete blocks for the guy anchoring remain. This is all that is left of what was once a towering achievement but became a disastrous failure.