Photo of the Week

WARNING!!! VIEWER DIGRESSION ADVISED IF YOU ARE AFRAID OF HEIGHTS.

Show above is a photo of the old U.S. Naval Communications Summit Transmitter Site 1960's (courtesy of http://www.virhistory.com/navy/commsta/balboa.htm and photo by Jay Schroeder). Visit this interesting site when you get a chance.

Many of us Zonians will always remember the Summit Radio towers that could be seen for miles away. A good view of the towers and the complex was from Contractor's Hill, day or night (night view). It was like they took away our old landmarks when the towers went down. Well did you ever wonder what it looked like on top of one of these towers? The photos below were sent into Pat Beall - Past Editor of the Panama Canal Society's Canal Record. I couldn't find the name of this contributor who was the person in these photos. The hand writing on the back of the photos states that this guy was greasing the cables, which I am sure protected the cable from the elements, but may have helped with the signal received and sent from the main buildings pictured above known as the Transmitter and Helix buildings. These four photos below are priceless as I am sure there are not any or many of the same left today. Hold on tight and enjoy the job you have or had and glad that this isn't or wasn't job.

Email sent to me after posting these photos. Thanks for this great information Carl.

Bill,

--Am a fan of your weekly photos and will continue to be.

--Mr McNabb was a gutsy Alabaman who was not fearful of heights, we know that. My buddy Jerry bragged about his old man working on the Summit towers. I think McNabb was a Navy civilian. The family lived in a Sago Avenue two-story duplex.

--My dad was an associate member of the Cocoli VFW; he never served in the military. When the December 7, 1941 attack occurred, my dad was 36 years old, had a wife and two kids, and a government essential job at Rodman NavSta.

--Anyway, he used to say he jumped off the 800-ft-plus tower at Summit and survived....yes, he jumped off that tower, from the

ground ladder, three feet from the ground, that is.

--Carl Berg in Tempe, Arizona