control tower

plural control towers

1. aeronauticsAn airport building from which the air traffic control unit monitors and directs the movement of aircraft on and around the airport.

   As he taxied out to the far side of the field, 38-year-old Captain Benton R. ("Lucky") Baldwin was cleared for takeoff. The control tower gave him his choice of two runways—No. 13 or No. 18.

   1947 June 9, “National Affairs: Holocaust at LaGuardia”, in Time

2. An enclosed, raised structure occupied by one or more persons who operate or exercise control over railway traffic, ship movement, a racetrack, machinery, etc.

   Ned Newton stood beside Tom in the control tower of the great tank as she started on her homeward way.

   1918, Victor Appleton, chapter 12, in Tom Swift And His War Tank

   3 more examples

   In a railway control tower at Dunkirk, Ohio, Operator Cliff Schwartzkopf waited for the Pennsylvania's Pennsylvanian, eastbound from Chicago to New York.

   1941 November 17, “Catastrophe: Crash at Dunkirk”, in Time

   The hump cabin and its relay room are at the summit of the hump on the right-hand side, and the control tower is on the centre line of the yard between the primary and secondary retarders.

   1959 July 28, “Temple Mills Marshalling Yard”, in Railway Magazine, page 492

   From the control tower high above the sprawling container port here, Danny Law helps manage the relentless loading and unloading of cargo, day and night.

   2006 January 29, Thomas Fuller, “China trade unbalances shipping”, in New York Times, retrieved 18 Jan 2012