Can you hear me now?

The array of low-frequency radio towers at the edge of Machias Bay in Cutler, Maine, is what allows the Navy communicate with submarines that are deep underwater anywhere around the globe. The towers themselves don't exactly add to the scenic beauty of the shoreline, though they may look kind of interesting from space--and they may be the only man-made feature in Maine that's visible to astronauts orbiting the earth. Each of the 27 towers is 1,000 feet high. They're remote controlled--all the radio signals are sent to the towers from Norfolk, VA, and then relayed out to the bottom of the sea, with no human intervention required. A small crew of civilians keeps the grass mowed and presumably changes the light bulbs; there are no Navy folks onsite at all, and no reports of Blackwater folks. The daytime picture was taken from 3 miles away, the nighttime picture from at least 10 or 15 miles away.

There is little or no cellphone service in this part of Maine.