Thursday 3 June 2010

NOP3

I must have passed this tower hundreds of times and always thought it was a water tower. Until I saw the sign attached to it and learned it had nothing to do with water. It was actually a guard tower.

During the Cold War (fifties and sixties) towers like this sprung up all over the Netherlands and the rest of Europe. They had someone in the top scouring the air with a pair of binoculars to spot for foreign (read Russian) planes. From the late sixties they became obsolete and most of them were demolished. This one survived and you can get the key off the bridge guard and you can climb all the way to the top to spot for foreign (read Russian) planes.

4 comments:

  1. See? You learn something every day. I'd known it was a watchtower, but you know... I thought they were for spotting wildlife or forest fires. Never thought of Russian planes.

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  2. what an interesting post. ^0^
    it would have never cross my mind surely, tnx for pointing that out.

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  3. I wonder how many stairs there are. My friend just did the stairs at the Eiffel Tower! Interesting information, thank you.

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Any weighty (and not so weighty) comments are welcome!