Wind makes power lines “heavy on their feet”

Power lines have to be built to support wind as well as wire. Where a new high-tension line crosses the Sacramento River with a span four-fifths of a mile long, the tallest power-line tower in the world rears its top 459 feet in air. The weight of wire suspended in a long arc from this tower to another 410 feet high on the opposite side of the stream is 69,000 pounds but wind pressure against the wires may add as much as 14,400 lb. to the load. The tallest steel structure itself weighs 405,000 lb. but is built to resist a wind pressure of 108,000 lb. It stands on a foundation of piles driven 80 ft. into the ground under a concrete base weighing a million pounds. Sixty-six per cent of this piling and concrete is required for wind load only.