Characteristics

• Built to provide better television signals for Toronto
• Canadian National Railways, CN, proposed building a transmission tower to solve the problem with weak television signals
• Work began in 1973 on the foundation
• Tower weighs 130,000 tons
• 62,000 tons of earth and shale to a depth of 50 feet were excavated for the foundation of the tower
• Foundation took four months to finish
• To make the tower, concrete was poured 24 hours a day, five days a week using a huge mold know as a slip form
• On the top is the SkyPod: a seven-story structure which has two observation decks, a revolving restaurant, a nightclub, and broadcasting equipment
• There are four high-speed elevators which take visitors to the SkyPod
• The concrete tower rises above the SkyPod, up to the Space Deck, 1465 feet above the ground
• On top is a 335 foot communications mast
• The tower was finished in 1975, at a cost of $57 million
• The tower has a wind-tolerance of 260 miles an hour
• Improvements keep being made
• The tower now has two additional elevators
• A glass floor was added to the observation deck of the SkyPod

Technology

• 62,000 tons of earth and shale were excavated
• Tower presented the challenge of how to build something so tall using concrete.  Therefore, engineers made a huge mold know as a slip form to pour the concrete.
• From the top, you can see sites 75 miles away on a clear day
• The communications mast would have taken six months to put up if they were not able to use a Sikorsky Skycrane helicopter
• Capable of withstanding winds of up to 260 miles per hour

Wonder Qualities

• Tallest freestanding structure
• Almost twice as tall as the Eiffel Tower
• More than three times the height of the Washington Monument