Saving the Last

Marconi Station Tower

Marconi Belmar station in Wall, NJ

Wall Township public works saved the last standing Marconi Tower.
The Tower witnessed the opening of the modern radio with the Edwin Armstrong regenerative circuit test in 1914,
then during WWI a major advance in communication science was made here in static elimination by Roy Weagant,
major advances were made here during WWII in radar,
in 1946 using modified FM radar equipment designed by Edwin Armstrong the space age was opened with Project Diana.
Camp Evans was an important satellite tracking center.
The Army played a major roll in the development of technology to receive cloud cover photos from a satellite
orbiting above the ionosphere. The signals from TIROS I and II were received here.
This page documents the balancing towers and how Wall saved the last one.

The tower saved by Wall was one of three line balancing towers built in 1914 along the edge of the Shark River.
The land to erect one of the towers was purchased from the founder of the Asbury Park Press,
A 1914 article tells us Dr. H. S. Kinmouth sold 300 square feet of his estate "Garden of the Gods".

Based upon this advertisement from the June 1916 issue of Wireless Age we believe the towers
were manufactured by the Milliken Brothers of NY.

The west tower was located near the intersection of Brighton Ave. and River Road (now named Marconi Road).
This 1922 photo a gift by Paul Foged
Note Tower to the right of the far end of the Brighton Ave. Bridge. The entrance to
Rt. 18 north is in this spot now.

This 1922 photo a gift by Paul Foged
The center tower is seen to the left of the operations building, above the trees.
This is the tower that was saved by Wall Township.

This 1922 photo a gift by Paul Foged
The east tower is seen in the center of this photo and thecenter tower can been seen in the distance on the right.
Note the first 400 ft. tall wireless reception mast on the left.

This tower was standing in 1949 as seen in a photo in an Asbury Park Press article.
We do not know when it fell, its remains were discovered by Tom Rospos of Birdsall Engineering in 2004.

center tower stands tall

For 58 years this tower stood tall. , until
app-March 9, 1971 fallen tower

Finally on March 5, 1971 this tower fell as documented in a March 9, Asbury Park Press Article.

An August 12, 1971 Asbury Park Press documents the monumnet project progess.

In February 1974 the top section of the line balancing tower was set in its new location on Marconi Road.

On April 23, 1974 the tower was used to celebrate Marconi's birthday.

On October 25, 1976 the Marconi Memorial Tower was dedicated by Troop 33.

A July 17, 2003 Coast Star article reviews the saving of the last standing line balancing tower.

Page updated September 1, 2005 page created September 1, 2005

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