sense of fascination/dread near very large structures

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OK this is quite hard to explain so forgive me if it sounds weird or rambling. For as long as I can remember I have always had what I can only describe as a dual sense of fascination and dread when in near proximity with very large structures. I'm not entirely sure when exactly this started but I can remember as a very young child, before the age of 5, being scared stupid of a gasometer near to where my grandparents lived. If ever we were going by it I would shut my eyes and only open them again when told that the thing was out of site.

Now I don't have a problem with gasometer's, but in the town where I live there is a tall concrete tower that is used to test lifts. Its nowhere near my house so I don't see it everyday but on days when I do see it I'm aware that, for a few moments, I become mesmerized by it and have to simply stop and gaze at it. I also sometimes have dreams about it but in the dreams the object is linked to unexplained feelings of extreme dread.

I also visited Paris several years ago with family/friends and we were walking through a large park (I forget what it was called) that approaches the Eiffel Tower. I can remember feeling absolutely awed by the thing but also the closer I got to it and the bigger it got also feeling very threatened. But rather than wanting to shut my eyes or look away, it was as though I couldn't get enough Eiffel Tower. We went on a river cruise that started right by the tower. It was raining heavily so everyone on board just stayed undercover, listening to the guff the guide was saying. But I went out on deck just so I could keep looking at the tower and felt very pissed off when it finally went out of site.

I've also had similar experiences near large statues, fairground attractions, even pylons and phone masts -always its like I want to keep staring but there's also always the sense of doom and dread. Also the Angel of the North really freaks me out and even seeing it on television or a picture of it makes me anxious. Actually it isn't a fear like "Oh, I've got to look away quick" but more just a sense of something bad happening or about to happen.

Can any other members relate to this. Is this some kind of autistic trait, or even some sort of vertigo?

ps: no one post a photo of the Angel of the f*****g North as a reply. Please!! !

I think that kind of feeling is somehow built in everybody, not necessarily an autistic trait. Though the fact that you experience it that consciously may be a autism thing.
After all it's a typical sign of the architecture in dictatorships to built high rising structures to make people feel small. You can se that from old Rome up to the moderns like Hitler (and he didn't even rebuild Berlin to "Germania" as he wanted to...), Mussolini, Franco.

But i think i understand him i get the same thing but it's really like your being attack'd by some wolf horde or something i managed to overcome this fear but i still dont feel completely save with it expecialy not churchs
still have nightmares that i have to go pass a super huge church -_-'

Hell yeah, I forgot churches. I regularly have bad dreams about really big imposing churches, yet I don't mind them at all while awake. I've just checked under my hairline, no 666 thankfully. But I agree, its more a feeling of extreme unease, almost like a personal attack as opposed to simply feeling inferior next to such a large thing.
To the person who posted mentioning imposing architecture throughout history I understand what you mean, but this does only seem to happen around very specific structures. Imposing buildings like a large museum, stadium a skyscraper etc I have no problems with, but its still a very interesting point.
It isn't that I fear these objects, I can look at them and, in some cases enjoy looking at them. Its the strange sense of dread I also experience in most of these situations that intrigues me most, and also the fact that it is a constant thing. Like, the lift tower in Northampton I perhaps see once a week but if I'm anywhere where I know it can be seen its like my eyes are just constantly drawn to look at it, almost as if the thing is calling out to me. I know that last bit makes me sound nuts but thats the only way I can think to describe this.

Any more suggestions?

The same fear prevented me from working at, or even visiting, the World Trade Towers, I am happy to say.

I did not even like walking near them, although that was unavoidable.

I experience more or less the same.
I can be really awestruck when seeing huge structures such as massive cargo-ships and other things.
The thing i mostly experience it with is with movie-scenes such as the Death Star in Star Wars or the immensity of ships in Eve Online.

I don't have any sense of dread or something but more like a deep fascination.

Throughout childhood, when riding in car, would pass a particular communications tower (red, large, with scary looking structure on top)-I'd close my eyes or hide under seat until we'd gone by it. Had similar, lesser, reaction when we'd go under poles of electric wires, the wide multi-strand ones that cut across swath of land (not the usual/common ones alongside road). These things just frightened & disturbed me, on some visceral, non-verbal, intuitive level.

I call it "revertigo", short for "reverse vertigo". When I stand at corner of tall building & look up, that "chasm-like" sense of "it's a long way up from here". Almost the same as what one feels atop it, just from opposite direction. Used to live near Empire State Plaza in Albany, N.Y. (USA) & had great time wandering around there: getting dizzy with fear & thrill at merely staring up from the bottom edge/side of buildings-lot less work than having to go up inside.