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In 1887, Sweden completed the Old Stockholm telephone tower, called the Telefontornet. It was a metal structure that looked like the steel skeleton of a great skyscraper. It was 260 feet tall and connected over 5,000 telephone lines in Stockholm.
This picture was taken in 1890, just a few years after the tower was completed.
Bygonely
The reason the wires are so visible is because they’re covered in hoarfrost.
The tower itself was strikingly beautiful. You know my oft-repeated theory that if our environment was more beautiful and clean, it would reflect in people being kinder, more respectful, and happier.
Wikipedia
By 1913, the tower was obsolete. The Swedes, much to their credit, did not tear down their beautiful tower until four decades later. It was severely damaged by fire in 1952 (how do you set a steel skeleton on fire? ). The tower was demolished the following year.
The American toy named The Erector Set was first sold in 1913. An assembly of its components looked like the Telefontornet.
I wonder if there’s a connection! I love the tower. The Swedish people must have been devastated to lose it.
that first picture is soo cool!
Quite amazing to give something industrial such beauty. Those thousands of wires in frost look like a gauzy material wrapped around the structure.
It is, isn’t it? I love industrial style and Art Nouveau, which are about as opposite as can be. This might be the most perfect blend I ever saw of the two!