Toronto - CN Tower

http://www.cntower.ca/intro.html

I found I did not take any pictures of CN Tower. I did take one from up top, but it is night and you cannot see anything.

I had hoped that the recent cracking event at the Willis Tower would make this more exciting, but it's not, really. If you have a material that you designed to be clear and strong, and you are constantly going to have shoes scuffing it and fingerprints accumulating, it would be normal to put some sort of easily changed covering, and the easy change would require it to be less durable. This is not to say that it wouldn't have been scary to be there when it was happening.

So I am left with not being impressed with tall buildings, and feeling like I am kind of deficient in that. It actually might have started in Toronto. This was my first really high tower. I have never gone up in the Space Needle, though I have seen it nearby. So, I went in, and it was very high, and I made a point of eating in the restaurant there, which I can't recommend, and I stood on the glass and looked down, and it was all kind of underwhelming.

About a month later I had a one night layover in Frankfurt, and saw two of them. One would have been the Europaturm, 331 meters high. I can't find a reference to another one, but I swear I saw two. The other may not have been tall enough to be famous. Anyway, I remember realizing that this type of structure isn't really that uncommon.

(And hey, with the Willis Tower, it is a whole building, which is impressive, but also, they have another tall building with an observation deck.)

Still, it's something you do. The height of radio towers serves a communication purpose, and if you can combine that with a view, it makes sense. If I get a chance, I am sure I would go up in the Space Needle. The CN Tower is the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere, and has been declared one of the modern Seven Wonders of the World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. I know these things are impressive, even if I cannot feel it.