CN Tower - The Antenna That Became an Icon

Photo: Scott Webb scottwebb, CC0 (cropped)

A stop on Toronto Downtown Walk, a free self-guided tour.

Tip your head back. At 553.3 metres, the CN Tower was the tallest free-standing structure in the world for more than three decades, from 1975 until Dubai's Burj Khalifa passed it in 2007. Canadian National Railway built it, which is where the CN comes from, and its job was practical: Toronto's new skyscrapers were getting in the way of broadcast signals, so the city needed an antenna that stood above them all.

Construction began in February 1973 and the tower opened to the public in June 1976. The most dramatic moment came near the end, when a giant Sikorsky Skycrane helicopter nicknamed Olga lifted the antenna into place in 36 pieces, saving months of work.

Find the main pod about two thirds of the way up. That is where the glass floor sits, 342 metres above you, and where EdgeWalk visitors circle the outside of the roof at 356 metres, clipped to an overhead rail. Watching them from down here is free.

Getting here: Follow the enclosed SkyWalk from the west side of Union Station, or walk west on Front Street and south on John Street, to the base of the tower.

Did you know?: CN first stood for Canadian National, the railway that built the tower. After the railway sold it in 1995, the letters stayed and are now said to stand for Canada's National Tower.

Photo op: Stand close to the base and shoot straight up the concrete shaft with a wide lens; the pod looks as if it is floating in the sky.

More on Wikipedia: CN Tower · Burj Khalifa · Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane

CN Tower - The Antenna That Became an Icon

Stops on this tour