{"id":4656,"date":"2015-07-31T07:46:03","date_gmt":"2015-07-31T12:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/?p=4656"},"modified":"2015-07-31T07:46:03","modified_gmt":"2015-07-31T12:46:03","slug":"a-visit-to-my-favorite-local-2063-footer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/?p=4656","title":{"rendered":"A visit to my favorite local 2,063 footer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/images\/2015\/07\/kvly_tower_35148.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4652\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/images\/2015\/07\/kvly_tower_35148.jpg\" alt=\"kvly_tower_35148\" width=\"313\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/images\/2015\/07\/kvly_tower_35148.jpg 313w, https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/images\/2015\/07\/kvly_tower_35148-94x150.jpg 94w, https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/images\/2015\/07\/kvly_tower_35148-188x300.jpg 188w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 313px) 100vw, 313px\" \/><\/a>On the way home from Fargo last weekend I decided to show my boys the fourth tallest man-made object in the world: KVLY&#8217;s tower near Blanchard.\u00a0 It was weird stopping by there as a <em>former<\/em> employee of NBC in North Dakota, but I still take pride in this structure.\u00a0 It&#8217;s a biggun, as they say.\u00a0 The massive structure above is just one set of guy wires and anchor holding it in place.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/images\/2015\/07\/kvly_tower_35119.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4654\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/images\/2015\/07\/kvly_tower_35119.jpg\" alt=\"kvly_tower_35119\" width=\"286\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/images\/2015\/07\/kvly_tower_35119.jpg 286w, https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/images\/2015\/07\/kvly_tower_35119-86x150.jpg 86w, https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/images\/2015\/07\/kvly_tower_35119-172x300.jpg 172w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 286px) 100vw, 286px\" \/><\/a>This tower is enormous, and for quite some time was <strong>the<\/strong> tallest man-made object in the world.\u00a0 It has since been dethroned, but aside from the Burj Khalifa its competition edges it out by fewer than ten feet.\u00a0 There&#8217;s phone booth sized elevator that goes up the center of this tower&#8230;scary.\u00a0 Rumor has it that the former chief engineer would ride up <strong>on top of<\/strong> the elevator so that\u00a0 second person could ride inside to go up the tower.\u00a0 I never asked him.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/images\/2015\/07\/kvly_tower_35126.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/images\/2015\/07\/kvly_tower_35126.jpg\" alt=\"kvly_tower_35126\" width=\"333\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/images\/2015\/07\/kvly_tower_35126.jpg 333w, https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/images\/2015\/07\/kvly_tower_35126-100x150.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/images\/2015\/07\/kvly_tower_35126-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 333px) 100vw, 333px\" \/><\/a>I haven&#8217;t been inside this building for a while.\u00a0 Structures near towers like this have heavily reinforced roofs, as enormous chunks of ice come crashing down over the winter and spring months.\u00a0 In fact, I&#8217;m pretty sure one has to make a mad dash for the building if going out there in the winter!\u00a0 Facilities built early enough, like this one, have living quarters inside&#8230;a throwback to the days when an engineer actually remained on site during all hours of transmitter operation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/images\/2015\/07\/kvly_tower_35135.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4655\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/images\/2015\/07\/kvly_tower_35135.jpg\" alt=\"kvly_tower_35135\" width=\"333\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/images\/2015\/07\/kvly_tower_35135.jpg 333w, https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/images\/2015\/07\/kvly_tower_35135-100x150.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/images\/2015\/07\/kvly_tower_35135-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 333px) 100vw, 333px\" \/><\/a>Silhouette.\u00a0 Can you imagine how long a shadow this tower casts on a winter day?\u00a0 Its counterpart, by the way, is nearby&#8230; a short little 2,060 footer.\u00a0 That tower, belonging to fellow Valley News Live station KXJB, fell twice: once after being struck by a helicopter, and a second time during the storms of 1997.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m so accustomed to dropping by this tower when in the neighborhood, hoping the engineers might be there servicing the transmitter, that I didn&#8217;t even stop to check if they&#8217;ve posted the access road.\u00a0 If you go out this way, check that out.\u00a0 I&#8217;m just used to the old days of being able to approach, and it&#8217;s been a long time since I&#8217;ve been &#8220;in the neighborhood&#8221;.\u00a0 But something this big has to be seen.\u00a0 If you want more information, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/KVLY-TV_mast\" target=\"_blank\">Wikipedia is probably your best bet<\/a>.\u00a0 I don&#8217;t think the Valley News Live page has the same tower information page that the old KVLY site did.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the way home from Fargo last weekend I decided to show my boys the fourth tallest man-made object in the world: KVLY&#8217;s tower near Blanchard.\u00a0 It was weird stopping by there as a former employee of NBC in North &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/?p=4656\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cool","category-energytechnology","category-on-the-road"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4656"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4657,"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4656\/revisions\/4657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}