CN Tower

290 Bremner Blvd.

Toronto, Ontario Canada

The CN Tower is a 553.3 meter (1,815 feet) communications and observation tower. It is a major national icon, once the world's tallest freestanding structure from 1975 to 2007. It features observation decks with glass floors and the higher SkyPod, the high-altitude Edgewalk for thrill-seekers, the revolving 360 Restaurant serving Canadian cuisine and serves as a telecommunications hub.  Completed in 1976, it remains the tallest in the Western Hemisphere and offers panoramic views of the city and Lake Ontario. The tower's lights change color for holidays and special events.  The lights are dimmed during bird migration seasons. 

The CN Tower was built by Canadian National Railway, construction started in 1973 and opened in 1976.  In 1995, Canadian National sold the CN Tower to the Canada Lands Company, a federal Crown corporation specializing in attractions of national interest.  It was then that the tower truly became Canada's National Tower both in name and in deed. 

The CN Tower's antenna spire is a 315 foot steel structure extending from the top of the concrete tower bringing the total height to 1,815 feet.  It is essential for television and radio broadcasting in Toronto and was installed in sections using a Sikorsky helicopter.

The CN Tower Story

The 1960s ushered in an unprecedented construction boom in Toronto, a city quickly growing up from a regional hub to a thriving, cosmopolitan destination.  Existing transmission towers were simply not high enough to broadcast radio and television signals over the tall new buildings which bounced the signals away from the intended audience.  To solve this problem and to demonstrate the aspirations of Canadian innovation and industry .. Canadian National, the Crown corporation that operated the country's largest railway network, employed more than 1,500 workers for 40 months to build the CN Tower. Once completed, it would be the tallest tower in the world, capable of broadcasting signals far and wide across the region. 

Tower construction crews moved in on February 6, 1973 and started to removed over 56 metric tons of earh and shale for the foundation.  Once the foundatio was ready, work began on the CN Tower's (1,100-foot) concrete shaft, a hexagonal core with three curved support arms.  To produce the CN Tower's tapered contour, construction crews poured concrete into a massive mold known as a slipform. As the concrete hardened, the slipform, supported by a ring of climbing jacks powered by hydraulic pressure, moved upwards, gradually decreasing in size to impart the curve in the Tower.  

By February 1974, the Tower was already the tallest structure in Canada.  In August 1974, work began on the seven-story sphere that would eventually house the observation decks and the revolving 360 Restaurant.  

TOPPING IT OFF

The CN Tower approached completion in March 1975, when Olga, the giant Sikorsky helicopter, flew into the city to lift the 39 pieces of the antenna into place.  The CN Tower was finished on April 2, 1975 and opened to the public on June 2, 1976.  

The CN Tower would remain the tallest freestanding structure in the world until surpassed by Dubai's mixed-use skyscraper titled Burj Khalifa in 2009 standing at 828 meters (2,717 feet) with 163 floors.  It opened January 4, 2010.

Today, the CN Tower is the centre of telecommunications for Toronto, serving more than 17 Canadian television and FM radio stations.  The tower is also the workplace of more than 500 people throughout the year.  And, of course, the CN Tower is an internationally renowned tourism destination, welcoming more than two million visitors each year.