Ostankino Tower

Ostankino Tower (russian: Останкинская телебашня, Ostankinskaya telebashnya) is a free-standing television and radio tower in Moscow, Russia. Standing 540 metres (1772 ft) tall, Ostankino was designed by Nikolai Nikitin. It is a member of the World Federation of Great Towers. The tower was the first free-standing structure to exceed 500 m (1640 ft) in height. The tower was constructed to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the October Revolution. It is named after the Ostankino district of Moscow in which it is located.

Construction began in 1963 and was completed in 1967. It surpassed the Empire State Building to become the tallest free-standing structure in the world. It held this record for nine years until the CN Tower was completed in Toronto, Canada in 1976, which surpassed its height by 14.1 metres (43 ft). The Ostankino Tower remained the second-tallest freestanding structure in the world for another 31 years until the Burj Dubai surpassed both it and the CN Tower in height in 2007.

The Ostankino Tower has remained the tallest free-standing structure in Europe for 42 years. The Russia Tower, a proposed 612-metre (2,010 ft) mixed-use skyscraper planned for the Moscow International Business Centre, was originally expected to exceed the Ostankino Tower's height when completed. However, the project has been suspended due to financial difficulties and it remains unclear if construction will resume.

A 1994 plan to increase the tower's height to 561 meters by adding an antenna was not implemented for lack of funding.

Accidents

The tower caught fire on August 27 2000, killing three people. In addition, television and radio signals were disrupted around Moscow. The fire broke out at a height of about 458 m, or approximately (98 meters (321 ft) above the observation platform and the Seventh Heaven restaurant, after a short-circuit in wiring belonging to a paging company. The fire necessitated an evacuation of all visitors and staff from those locations. According to Russian news agencies, the evacuation was complete 90 minutes after the start of the fire. The loss was substantial, due to the age and poor maintenance of the electronic equipment, much of which was installed in the 1960s. In addition, the tower had become increasingly packed with equipment The failure of the fire suppression systems allowed the fire to destroy most of the tower's interior. Although more than 300 firefighters and other emergency workers were called in, firemen were forced to haul heavy equipment, including chemical fire extinguishers, by hand up the tower to try and halt the fire. Eventually, temporary firewalls of asbestos placed 70 meters (231 feet) up the tower stopped the fire from spreading further. The fire knocked out virtually all television broadcasts in Moscow and the surrounding regions. The only television station not affected was the private NTV station and the chennai relay station, but the government decreed that state channels took priority, and as such, the RTR TV channel began transmitting to several Moscow districts.

The fire caused the tower's upper spire to tilt slightly and triggered fears the tower might even collapse. However, subsequent inspections determined that although the tower's structure sustained heavy damage, the tower was not in danger of collapse. Immediately, efforts began to rebuild the tower, which would prove to be a long and expensive task.

The fire was the third disaster in Russia in a month, following an explosion in a Moscow underground passage that killed 12 people and the sinking of nuclear-powered submarine Kursk in the Barents Sea in which 118 died. Russian President Vladimir Putin, stated that "This latest accident shows the shape of our vital installations and the overall state of our country. We should not fail to see major problems in the country behind this accident, and we should not forget the economy. Whether or not such accidents happen again in the future will depend on how we work in this vital direction."

On 1 July 2004, Austrian BASE jumper Christina Grubelnik struck the tower during her descent, receiving a concussion and losing consciousness. Her parachute snagged on a lower-level service platform and she was eventually rescued by Russian emergency services.

On March 25, 2005 the first elevator was tested and put into service after the fire in August 2000. However, the famous Seventh Heaven restaurant has remained closed since the accident.

On 25 May 2007, the tower again caught fire, though it was not as serious as the 2000 fire and was isolated to a platform on the outside of the tower. All people inside the tower were evacuated and the fire was successfully extinguished, with no casualties.

In the Russian novel Night Watch (Nochnoy Dozor), the Tower was the scene of a confrontation between Night Watch agent Anton Gorodetsky and a Day Watch agent. The Night Watch movie of the same name also featured this confrontation.

Transmissions

TV stations

Station Channel Frequency ERP Remarks
Channel One (Russia) 1 40 kW
TV Centr 3
TV Sport 6 100 W Шаблон:Fact
NTV 8
Russia TV Channel 11 60 kW
DTV 23 10 kW
Euronews 25
STS-Moscow 27
7TV 29 10 kW
Domashny 31 20 kW
TV Kultura 33 20 kW
TNT (Russia) 35 2 kW
MTV Russia 38
Petersburg - Channel 5 40
TV3 Russia 46
REN-TV 49 1 kW
Muz-TV 51
Zvezda 57
2 X 2 60 5 kW

FM stations

Station Frequency ERP
"Radio Russia", "Radio Podmoskovie", "Radiocompany Moscow" 66.44 MHz 15.0 kW
"Unost" 68.84 MHz 15.0 kW
"Mayak" 67.22 MHz 15.0 kW
"Europa Plus" 69.80 MHz 15.0 kW
"Russian Radio" 71.30 MHz 10.0 kW
"Orpheus" 72.14 MHz 15.0 kW
"Radio Retro" 72.92 MHz 15.0 kW
"Echo of Moscow" 73.82 MHz 10.0 kW
"Radio Retro" 88.30 MHz 1.0 kW
"Radio Jazz" 89.10 MHz 1.0 kW
"Classic Radio" 100.90 MHz 5.0 kW
"Dance FM" 101.2 MHz 10.0 kW
"Radio Maximum" 103.7 MHz 10.0 kW
"Russian Radio" 105.70 MHz 10.0 kW
"Europa Plus" 106.2 MHz 10.0 kW

References

Шаблон:Reflist

External links

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19 June 2017
Место - сказка! Была на башне уже много раз, а все равно каждый раз интересно слушать экскурсовода (так интересно редко где рассказывают) и виды, открывающиеся с башни не просто не приелись, мне кажется, что они впечатляют меня с каждым разом все больше и больше! Место обязательно к посещению)
Олег Высоцкий
Отличная экскурсия. Надеюсь снова посетить это место. Лучшая панорама в Москве
Павел Николаев
Отличное место. Нам очень понравилось. Стоит посетить не только взрослым, но и детям. Думаю, каждый сможет найти здесь что-то для себя.
Luís Barbosa Vicente
12 May 2013
Visit groups start every hour, but you have to reserve a place first (at any time), and then come 30m earlier to actually buy the tickets. You cannot visit outside a group.
Dmitry Kolesnik
25 July 2017
Great place to be to see great city) buy tickets online beforehand, otherwise you could wait for 2-3 hours in a queue.
Marcelo Barroso
24 October 2023
120 floors. so far it was the tallest building I've been to. The feeling of walking on the glass floor up there is incomparable! My top 1 in Moscow!
Gabriele Guidoni
4 August 2019
Tip for the bag storage: Numbers on the cabinets are not sequential (there is not a unique number 4, 5, etc) so if you look for your cabinet remember both letter and number (e.g. 3A);
Bart Den Dekker
25 October 2016
A must-see! If you go up around 7pm, it's quiet and you've got a beautiful view of Moscow by night!
GarikTravels
22 March 2011
540 meters high. 4th tallest tower in the world. You can get to see the panoramic view from 337 meters deck. The site is only in Russian though - http://www.nashabashnya.ru
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