Austin, Texas story
Moonlight Towers
Look up, and you might see a towering metal truss structure rising high above the neighborhood. Erected in 1895, these are Austin's Moonlight Towers, the only known surviving stru…
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Look up, and you might see a towering metal truss structure rising high above the neighborhood. Erected in 1895, these are Austin's Moonlight Towers, the only known surviving structures of their kind in the world. Originally, thirty-one of these towers were fabricated by the Fort Wayne Electric Company and shipped in pieces to Austin to form the city's first electrical public street lighting system.
Standing a dizzying one hundred sixty-five feet tall on a fifteen-foot foundation, each tower originally held six carbon arc lamps. These powerful lights illuminated a fifteen-hundred-foot radius so brightly that citizens could easily read their watches at night. Over the years, the technology evolved, converting to incandescent lamps in 1925 and mercury-vapor lamps in 1936.
Today, only seventeen of the original towers are accounted for, with just six still standing in their original locations. Recognized as Texas State Landmarks, these elegant towers remain a beloved, historic part of the city's architectural fabric, casting a nostalgic glow over Austin's streets.
Updated June 2026