Texas Tower 3 was a former United States Air Force Texas Tower General Surveillance Radar station, first operational in November 1956. The radar station was 50 miles (80 km) southeast of the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, in 80 feet of water. The tower was closed in 1963 and dismantled.
Image of Texas Tower 3
Texas Towers were a set of three radar facilities off the eastern seaboard of the United States which were used for surveillance by the United States Air Force during the Cold War. Modeled on the offshore oil drilling platforms first employed off the Texas coast, they were in operation from 1958 to 1963. After the collapse of one of the towers in 1961, the remaining towers were closed due to changes in threat perception and out of a concern for the safety of the crews.
Texas Tower 3
Texas Tower 2; note tropospheric scatter dish antennae on edge of platform
Texas Tower 4 before installation of cross-braces