I’ve just returned from Chicago, and have one question: what are the “mushroom” shaped towers dotted alongside the main roads? My guess is that they might be mobile phone masts, but my mates disagree.
If they were between 20 to 45 meters tall they were almost certainly mobile phone towers.
Well I can’t say as I remember them but perhaps I’ve just blocked them out. I’ll look for them when I go down to Lincoln Park Zoo today.
Where did you see them?
They were every couple of miles or so alongside the only roads I used (the interstates between Lisle and O’Hare). About 20-40 meters tall sounds about right.
Mobile phone towers are (usually) a basic, plain, iron girder affair. Usually they are wider at the base and taper to a point but not always. The real giveaway are the triangle antennas. Space up the tower are triangle ‘platforms’ with vertical antennas spaced around them…maybe three or four to a side.
Ugly things.
You’ll also see cell antennas plastered to nearly anything rising off the ground…chimneys, water towers, sides of buildings, you name it.
Matt, how far off the road were they and how frequently did you see them? And how tall were they? I assume you were on I-88 (East-West Tollway) and I-294 (Tri-State Tollway). I can’t picture what you’re describing along those roads.