The Nation: Eyesore to History

Alarms have been sounded for nearly four years over the project's bad taste, but the debasement of a national landmark rolls on in Gettysburg, Pa., with no apparent means at hand to stop it.

Maryland Developer Thomas Ottenstein has announced that he will open, probably this summer, his nearly completed 307-ft. observation tower at the edge of the Gettysburg battlefield. When historians, environmentalists and some townspeople expressed shock and consternation at his idea, Ottenstein insisted that the tower would be of considerable educational value and not detract from the hallowed battlefield ground. At a cost of $1.35 a person, the tower will permit observers a comprehensive view of the terrain where at least 7,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died and more than 33,000 were wounded in three days of battle in 1863. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania failed in a lawsuit last year to have construction on the tower halted for environmental reasons. With nearly every legal recourse now exhausted, the tower—standing 1,200 ft. from where President Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address—will serve an estimated 1 million tourists annually. It represents yet another needless exploitation of the national heritage.