CN Tower

My first trip to Canada was to Toronto. The CN Tower stands 1,815 feet high and was completed in 1976 as a TV and radio communcation platform for the Toronto area.

The observation deck features 256 square feet of glass floor, two and a half inches thick, offering visitors a view 1,122 feet down to the ground. Don’t worry, the glass is estimated to withstand the weight of 14 large hippos.

The tower was the World’s tallest free-standing structure for 34 years. Being so tall, lightning strikes the CN Tower an average of 75 times per year. Long copper strips running down the hexagonal core feed into massive grounding rods buried below ground, ensuring each lighting strike safely finds its way to the ground.