Two Gettysburg park observation towers will be closed a couple days for the removal of old flagpoles for restoration

West Confederate Avenue tower (NPS) and Culp's Hill tower (Craig Swain, HMdb.org)

Two observation towers at Gettysburg National Military Park will be closed for nearly three days so that crew can remove flagpoles at the top because of safety concerns.

The Longstreet (West Confederate) and Culp’s Hill towers, their parking areas and road access will be off limits from sunset Sunday until Wednesday morning (Nov. 1), park officials said this week.

"The flagpoles are original to the towers. The flagpoles were removed due to safety concerns (corrosion, deterioration, and rust) until a more comprehensive project can be undertaken to rehabilitate the towers in their entirety," park spokesman Jason Martz told the Picket in an email.

The flagpoles will not be reinstalled until that project occurs and no placeholders will go up, Martz said.

All three towers, including the Oak Ridge observation tower, were built between 1895 and 1896 when Gettysburg National Military Park was administered by the United States War Department between 1895 and 1933.

The three towers at Gettysburg National Military Park have beckoned visitors for 125 years, offering views of the Pennsylvania hills, pastures and valleys where two armies clashed in July 1863. The Oak Ridge tower was truncated years ago and has no flagpole.

A report during their construction said: “These are all solid and well-built structures, and, located as they are, they afford the observer a complete and satisfactory view of the entire scene of the great battle and enable him to get a consistent and accurate idea of it as a whole.”

A 1998 NPS drawing of three of the Gettysburg towers (Library of Congress)

Engineering assessments in April 2022 showed the three are structurally sound. The inspections took place via vertical access (rappelling) and by hypsometric laser scanning, officials said in a news release ahead of the work.

Here’s a look at the two towers at which flagpoles will be removed:

West Confederate Avenue (75 feet)

Also called the Longstreet Tower, the structure provides views of many features, including Pitzer Woods, the Rose Farm, Wheatfield, Peach Orchard and Big Round Top and Little Round Top. Behind is Eisenhower National Historic Site.

Culp’s Hill (60 feet)

The hill was the extreme right flank of the Union army, and the object of Confederate assaults that failed to dislodge them. “Culp's Hill became a prime tourist attraction after the battle. It was close to the town and, unlike most battles in open fields, it was heavily wooded and the extreme firepower took a very visible toll on the trees, some of which were completely sheared off,” a Waymarking.com article about the tower says.

Three other towers on the battlefield were removed years ago, for differing reasons.