Maine is Home to What Once Was the Tallest Structure in the World

When you think of some of the tallest buildings and structures in the world, you probably think of buildings. One World Trade Center, The Empire State Building, and the numerous buildings overseas all come to mind.

However, some of the tallest structures in the world aren't buildings. At one point, Maine held the record for the world’s tallest architectural structure, but it didn't last long.

In 1959, TV station WGAN, today known as WGME 13, built a transmission tower in Raymond, Maine, that was 1624 feet tall. For comparison, in 1959, it was taller than the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and the Eifel Tower.

The top of the tower can be seen from miles away and across several towns.

I remember sitting on the steps leading down to Sebago Lake at my grandmother's camp as a kid and looking over across the lake to see the massive tower's red lights pulsing on and off. I would sit there for hours just listening to the water splash on the rocks below while in awe of the engineering marvel that looked over the lake.

The WGME tower got to hold onto the world record for just one year, when WVFS TV in Missouri built their tower 53 feet high taking the world record. After that, the world record seemed to change every year as we kept building higher and higher.

The WGME tower did hold the record for the tallest structure in Maine for quite some time. That is, until WMTW moved their transmitter off of Mount Washington (where they had been for years) and built a tower in Baldwin in 2002 that was just 43 feet taller at 1667 feet.

The tower has severed Maine well. With the height it has, both WGME's and WBLM's signal, which also broadcasts from the tower, travel much further than most TV and radio stations in Maine do.