Ostankino Tower (,
Ostankinskaya telebashnya) is a free-standing
television and
radio tower in
Moscow,
Russia. Standing tall, Ostankino was designed by
Nikolai Nikitin. It is a member of the
World Federation of Great Towers, currently the tallest in
Europe and 4th tallest in the world.
The tower was the first free-standing structure to exceed in height. The tower was constructed to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the
October Revolution. It is named after the Ostankino district of Moscow in which it is located.
Construction began in 1963 and was completed in 1967. Extensive use of
prestressed concrete resulted in simple and sturdy structure. It surpassed the
Empire State Building to become the
tallest free-standing structure in the world. It held this record for nine years until the
CN Tower was completed in
Toronto,
Canada in 1976, which surpassed its height by .
The Ostankino Tower remained the second-tallest freestanding structure in the world for another 31 years until the
Burj Khalifa surpassed both it and the CN Tower in height in 2007. The height of the tower is also expected to be surpassed by
One World Trade Center in
New York City,
Abraj Al Bait Towers in
Mecca,
Guangzhou TV & Sightseeing Tower in
Guangzhou,
Shanghai Tower in
Shanghai and
Tokyo Sky Tree in
Tokyo (all under construction).
The tower created a desire for other large cities in the Soviet dominated countries to build high towers. Towers taller than 300 metres were built in Kiev, Tashkent, Almaty, Riga, Berlin, Vilnius, Tallinn, Yerevan, St. Petersburg and Baku.
The Ostankino Tower has remained the tallest free-standing structure in
Europe for 42 years. The
Russia Tower, a proposed
mixed-use skyscraper planned for the
Moscow International Business Centre, was originally expected to exceed the Ostankino Tower's height when completed. However, the project has been suspended due to financial difficulties and it remains unclear if construction will resume.
A 1994 plan to increase the tower's height to 561 meters by adding an antenna was not implemented for lack of funding.
Accidents
The tower on fire in August 2000
The tower caught fire on August 27, 2000, killing three people. In addition, television and radio signals were disrupted around Moscow. The fire broke out at a height of about , or approximately above the observation platform and the Seventh Heaven restaurant, after a short-circuit in wiring belonging to a paging company.
[ The fire necessitated an evacuation of all visitors and staff from those locations. According to Russian news agencies, the evacuation was complete 90 minutes after the start of the fire. The loss was substantial due to the age and poor maintenance of the electronic equipment, much of which was installed in the 1960s. In addition, the tower had become increasingly packed with equipment. The failure of the fire suppression systems allowed the fire to destroy most of the tower's interior. Although more than 300 firefighters and other emergency workers were called in, firemen were forced to haul heavy equipment, including chemical fire extinguishers, by hand up the tower to try and halt the fire. Eventually, temporary firewalls of asbestos placed up the tower stopped the fire from spreading further.][ by Nick Wadhams, The Independent, August 28, 2000.] The fire knocked out virtually all television broadcasts in Moscow and the surrounding regions. The only television station not affected was the private NTV station and the chennai relay station, but the government decreed that state channels took priority, and as such, the RTR TV channel began transmitting to several Moscow districts.
The fire caused the tower's upper spire to tilt slightly and triggered fears the tower might even collapse. However, subsequent inspections determined that although the tower's structure sustained heavy damage, the tower was not in danger of collapse. Immediately, efforts began to rebuild the tower, which would prove to be a long and expensive task.
The fire was the third disaster in Russia in a month, following an explosion in a Moscow underground passage that killed 12 people and the sinking of nuclear-powered submarine Kursk in the Barents Sea in which 118 died. Russian President Vladimir Putin, stated that "This latest accident shows the shape of our vital installations and the overall state of our country. We should not fail to see major problems in the country behind this accident, and we should not forget the economy. Whether or not such accidents happen again in the future will depend on how we work in this vital direction."[ by Helen Womackin, The Independent, August 29, 2000.]
On 1 July 2004, Austrian BASE jumper Christina Grubelnik struck the tower during her descent, receiving a concussion and losing consciousness. Her parachute snagged on a lower-level service platform and she was eventually rescued by Russian emergency services.
On March 25, 2005 the first elevator was tested and put into service after the fire in August 2000. However, the famous Seventh Heaven restaurant has remained closed since the accident.
On 25 May 2007, the tower again caught fire, though it was not as serious as the 2000 fire and was isolated to a platform on the outside of the tower. All people inside the tower were evacuated and the fire was successfully extinguished, with no casualties.In popular culture
In the Russian novel Night Watch, the Tower was the scene of a confrontation between Night Watch agent Anton Gorodetsky and a Day Watch agent. The Night Watch movie of the same name also featured this confrontation.
The computer game Metro 2033 features the tower as part of the storyline.
thumb|1000px|left|360° panorama from observation desk of the Ostankino Tv tower Transmissions
TV stations
TV stations (DVB-T)
FM stations
DVB-T stations
See also
