Guyed Mast

A guyed mast is a tall, slender vertical structure that can support its own weight in compression but relies on diagonal, tensioned cables, called guys, anchored to the ground or a base to keep it from buckling under wind and other lateral forces, letting engineers build far taller and thinner towers than a free-standing structure of the same weight could achieve. A tall guyed mast typically needs two to four separate sets of guy lines fixed at different heights along its length; the Blaw-Knox towers of the 1930s were an exception, their broad diamond cross-section giving them enough shear strength to stand on a single set of guys. The type is used for radio and television transmission towers, ships' masts, and the working booms of cranes, draglines and derricks, and the tallest example built, the KRDK-TV mast in Traill County, North Dakota, reaches 2,060 feet, or 630 meters.