Alattice tower ortruss tower is a freestanding verticalframeworktower. This construction is widely used intransmission towers carrying high-voltage electricpower lines, inradio masts and towers (a self-radiating tower or as a support foraerials) and inobservation towers. Its advantage is goodshear strength at a much lower weight than a tower of solid construction would have as well as lower wind resistance.

Instructural engineering, the termlattice tower is used for afreestanding structure, while alattice mast is aguyed mast supported byguy lines. Lattices of triangular (three-sided) cross-section are most common, particularly in North America. Square (four-sided) lattices are also widely used and are most common in Eurasia. A lattice towers is often designed as either aspace frame or ahyperboloid structure.

Before 1940, they were used as radio transmission towers especially for short and medium wave. Occasionally lattice towers consisting of wood were utilized. The tallest wooden lattice tower was atMühlacker, Germany. It had a height of 190 metres (620 ft) and was built in 1934 and demolished in 1945. Most wood lattice towers were demolished before 1960. In Germany, the last big radio towers consisting of wood were the transmission towers of theGolm transmitter and thetransmitter Ismaning. They were demolished in 1979 and 1983 respectively.

The tallest free-standing lattice tower is theTokyo Skytree, with a height of 634 metres (2,080 ft). ThePetronius Compliant Tower is the tallest supported lattice tower at 640 metres (2,100 ft), being partially submerged. The city most renowned for lattice towers isCincinnati, Ohio, which features four towers above 900 feet in height. Tokyo is the only other city in the world that has more than one above that height.

The majority of the tallest steel lattice towers in the world are actually built in water and used as oil platforms. These structures are usually built in large pieces on land, most commonly in Texas or Louisiana, and then moved by barge to their final resting place. Since a large portion of these towers is underwater, the official height of such structures is often held in dispute. The steel lattice truss for these structures, known as jackets in the oil industry, are typically far more robust and reinforced than their land-based counterparts, sometimes weighing more than 50,000 tons as is the case for theBullwinkle andBaldpate platforms, whereas tall (above 1,000 feet) land-based lattice towers range from a high of 10,000 tons as is the case in theEiffel Tower to as low as a few hundred tons. They are built to a higher standard to support the weight of the oil platforms built on top of them and because of the forces to which they are subjected. As a result, the cost to build these structures can run into thehundreds of millions. These costs are justified due to the resulting oil and gas revenues, whereas land-based towers have a much lower stream of revenue and therefore the capital costs of towers are typically much less.

Since end of the 19th century, tall lattice towers were built. Lattice towers have even held the absolute height record. They are among the tallest free-standing architectural structures and hold a number of national records, such as the tallest free-standing or even overall tallest structure of a country.

List of allsupertall lattice tower structures in the world.

  indicates a structure that is no longer standing.

List of radio tower above 150 m / 500 ft in height.

  indicates a structure that is no longer standing.
  indicates a structure that has had a change in height or has been rebuilt.

List of Electrical pylons above 150 m / 500 ft in height.