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Towering Above the Atlantic

Texas Tower #2 rises above Georges Shoal—about 100 miles offshore from Cape Cod—in 1955. Built by the U.S. Air Force during the Cold War, the tower was a radar facility for national air defense. For 15 years, WHOI scientists worked under a government contract to conduct oceanographic measurements from several Texas Towers and from the Coast Guard’s offshore lightships and light stations along the East Coast.

(Photo courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Archives)