Aloha (tower)

Aloha Tower has 10 floors, its own height is 56.1 meters plus a flagpole 12.2 meters high, on which a ball of time is mounted. On all four sides are bronze dials with a diameter of 3.7 meters and a weight of 7 tons ^[1] . At 7, 12 and 16 hours a siren was triggered on the tower, signaling the exact time, but later it was used only to meet arriving ships, as well as to warn residents of a tsunami or fire ^[2] . For 33 years, this lighthouse remained the tallest building in Hawaii until the shopping center was opened. The tower was built in the traditional . The construction cost was huge at that time (1926), the amount of 190 000 dollars (more than 2 585 000 dollars in 2016 prices ^[3] ). The observation deck on the 10th floor is open for visitors daily from 9-30 to 17-00 ^[4] , more than 5000 people visit it per week, the capacity of the platform is 24 people at a time ^[1] .

The construction of the Aloha Tower began in 1924, and on July 1, 1926, its lighthouse, visible for 20 miles , began work ^[1] . It was immediately automated and cost the government $ 50 a year (the salary of a caretaker would be about $ 1,500 a year). On September 11 of the same year, the grand opening of the building took place. After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the lighthouse was immediately painted in camouflage and extinguished until the end of World War II. In 1948, the re-opening of the tower took place, brown-green stains were washed away from it. In the late 1960s, high-rise buildings began to appear in the vicinity of Aloha, and therefore it was decided to remove navigation functions from it. The signal light was moved to the TV tower, and in 1975 a new lighthouse was launched at pier No. 2. On May 13, 1976, the tower was added to the National Register of Historic Places of the United States ^[5] . In 1981, the state-owned Aloha Tower Development Corporation was founded, which was engaged in the repair and modernization of the Aloha tower and the surrounding area. A major reconstruction was carried out in 1994, while not a single cent was taken from taxpayers ^[2] . Also, the tower was closed for repairs from 1997 to April 1999 ^[1] .

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  Aloha Tower at night

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  entrance

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  Top

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  View from the tower. In the frame, the Hawaii Maritime Center Museum and the ship.

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  View from the tower. In the frame of the passenger liner " ".

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  View from the tower. In the frame, the icebreaker .

•   Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aloha Tower
• Tower Official Website