User:Djflem/Tuckerton telecommunications facilities

Tuckerton, New Jersey is the southernmost point of Ocean County located on the Atlantic Ocean on the East Coast of the United States. The borough is central buisness district of Little Egg Harbor Township and lends its name to notable telecommunications facilities located within it.

Two antenna towers have at diifferent times made the township the home of the  tallest structure in the state. The demolished Tuckerton Wireless and the existing Tuckerton Television Tower were built as guyed masts, requiring the support of a guy-wire for stability. The Tuckerton Cable Landing Station serves as the United States end of various submarine communications cables to Europe, the Caribbean, and South America.

Tuckerton Wireless
39°33'30"N  74°22'13"W

The 825 foot Tuckerton Wireless Tower (39.5585°N, -74.3706°W) was built in 1912 by the German "Hochfrequenzmaschin Aktiengesellschaft Fuer Drahtlose Telegraphie" company (The High Frequency Machine Corporation for Wireless Telegraphy, often referred to as HOMAG) when the present-day Mystic Island was called Hickory Island. The tower was used to communicate with an identical radio telegraph station in Eilvese, Germany starting on Jun 19, 1914, less than two weeks before the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. The station continued to communicate with Eilvese until America entered World War I on April 6, 1917. It is rumored that it was used to send the message to order the attack by a German U-boat on the RMS Lusitania. After President Wilson's Declaration of Neutrality, the President ordered the US Navy to take over the station on Sep 9, 1914 to assure the neutrality of messages sent to and from the station; however, the station continued to be operated by German nationals employed by HOMAG and continued to communicate only with the Eilvese radio station.

When America entered the war, all U.S. radio stations were seized and shut down by Executive Order. The remaining German personnel at Tuckerton immediately became war prisoners and were replaced by U.S. Navy personnel. The Navy used the Tuckerton Radio Station for transatlantic communications while the naval radio stations in New Brunswick, NJ and Sayville, NY were undergoing major transmitter and antenna upgrades. Tuckerton was used for fleet broadcasts after installations of 200 kilowatt transmitters at New Brunswick and Sayville were completed in June, 1918.

After the war, the Tuckerton Wireless Station was included in German war reparations paid to America. Shortly afterwards, it was sold to RCA which operated it until 1948 as a backup to their famous Radio Central facility in Rocky Point, New York. In 1921, RCA installed two massive Alexanderson alternators, which were removed in 1948. For transatlantic communications, the radio station operated under the call signs WCI and WGG. For coastal communications, after World War I, the station operated under the callsign WSC. The 820 ft steel tower, anchored by three large concrete blocks, was taken down on December 27, 1955. The three huge anchor blocks still exist today, in a backyard on North Ensign Drive and in the middle of South Ensign Drive and Staysail Drive. Many smaller anchor blocks providing foundations for smaller towers visible in this photo, that supported the umbrella antenna are still visible in the lagoons. Remains of the large tower can be seen in scraps at the Giffordtown Museum.

Rudolf Goldschmidt, Both towers are along the New Jersey Coastal Heritage Trail Route nearby the Atlantic Ocean. Tuckerton Wireless, built in 1912 and demolished on December 27, 1955. It was built by Germany, and was as one of the first and most powerful Transatlantic stations. The tower, at 820 feet, was the second tallest in the world after the Eiffel Tower. It was first used to send a birthday telegram to the president. It is rumored that it was used to send the message "Get Lucy", a.k.a. the order to destroy the Lusitania, the event which started WWI. The tower was taken over by the United States government during the Second World War. Parts of the tower are in scraps and shown at the Giffordtown museum on Leitz Blvd.

In November 1913, the New York Times reported that contrary to previous statements no message had been sent by the Goldschimdt high frequency machine from Neustadt in Germany to the New Jersey Coast, but that it was a matter a time before it would be possible.

Tuckerton Televison Tower
39° 37' 53" North 74° 21' 10" West The televison tower was built in 2000 and is Philadelphia media market. Despite it's location in Ocean County resident and tourists are unable to view WWSI.
 * WWSI Television Tower (Philadelphia Telemundo 62)
 * Height: 1,000 ft (305 m)
 * Tuckerton (39.63139°N, -74.35278°W)
 * Year built: 2000
 * Owner: Hispanic Broadcasters of Philadelphia

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/17/nyregion/new-jersey-questions-need-for-a-waterfront-tv-tower.html http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/09/nyregion/tv-stations-prefer-bayonne-for-new-tower.html http://www.njlibertytower.com/NewsArticles.htm

Tuckerton Cable Landing Station
Four TAT, or transatlantic telecommunications cable systems, have had there western, or American landing stations in Tuckerton. The newest, TAT-14, a 15428 km cable system between the United States and the European Union countries of Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom.

The 360americas, now part of GlobalNet, is 6700 km cable from Brazil, via Bermuda, that also ends in Tuckerton.