Sabato Rodia spent thirty-three years, from 1921 to 1954, building the Watts Towers alone with hand tools. The Watts Towers were built over thirty-three years, from 1921 to 1954, by a single man named Sabato Rodia — an Italian immigrant tile setter and construction worker who called himself Sam. He bought a triangular lot in the working-class neighborhood of Watts, built nine interconnected towers of steel rebar wound with wire mesh and covered in mortar, and into the mortar he pressed the materials of everyday life: broken tiles, pottery fragments, glass bottles, seashells, corn cobs, and the occasional broken cup.
The tallest tower reaches 99 feet. Rodia used no scaffolding, no power tools, no bolts, and no welding — only hand tools, a window-washer's belt, and an obsession that consumed three decades. In 1954 he deeded the property to a neighbor and moved away, never explaining why.
The city tried to demolish the towers in 1959, claiming they were unsafe; a structural stress test proved them sound. Rodia died in 1965, never returning to see what he had made. From the base, your eye climbs through a lattice of steel and tile until nothing is left but sky.