People Used to Base Jump Off This Giant Maine Radio Tower

This is the loud and proud WBLM radio tower, which at one time was the largest manmade erection (funny joke here) in the US. True! The tower is taller than the Empire State Building, the Eiffel Tower, or the Washington Monument. Hey, if you've got it, flaunt it! The tower is in beautiful Raymond, Maine, and high atop it is the WBLM transmitter, a classic rock blowtorch of a signal that pumps out 100,000 watts of pure power.

Now, way back in the day, people used to actually JUMP off the tower with a parachute! Base jumping. The insurance people seemed to have a problem with it, and so that activity ended. Can you imagine?!?!

Here's a photo. We are not sure who is jumping off here, but we hope he got to the bottom ok. You can see Sebago Lake below.

Now, you don't need to climb the 1619 foot tall tower for the view. Our friends at Sky High Maine have an amazing drone video of the tower.

Here are some facts about the WBLM/WGME tower: 

• The tower was built in 1959
• It is guyed on all three sides at anchor points 1200 feet from its base
• Because of the extreme length of the guy wires, the tower requires 100 acres of land
• It can withstand winds up to 152 mph
• It has an elevator that can carry 3 people
• The tower weighs 520,000 pounds
• There are over 13,000 bolts used in construction, and the Captain and Celeste go out there every weekend to tighten them up (not true).

To give you an idea of what it must be like to base jump, here's a video of some guys jumping off a radio tower in Bolivia. Wow!