CN Tower Facts

CN Tower Facts for Kids

• The CN Tower is located in Toronto, Canada. Toronto is the capital of Ontario, a province in the northwest of the country. Toronto is also the largest city in Canada by population, so a lot of people must live there.
• We’re pretty sure the CN Tower’s incredible height is the reason it’s Canada’s National Tower. It’s an unbelievable 1,814 feet (553.3 metres) tall!
• When it was built in 1976, the CN Tower was officially the tallest tower in the world and the tallest free-standing structure. It was overtaken as the tallest tower in the world by Canton Tower in 2007 and the tallest free-standing structure by Burj Khalifa in 2009.
• The real reason it’s called the Canadian National Tower is because it was actually built by the railway company, Canadian National. Ahhhhhh, now it makes sense.
• Today, more than 2 million international tourists visit the CN Tower every year.
• It is one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World and belongs to the World Federation of Great Towers. It is still the tallest free-standing structure in the western hemisphere, which covers all of North and South America, including the Caribbean, Central America and Greenland.
• The idea for the tower began in 1968. The purpose was to build a communications tower for TV and radio.
• The CN Tower is largely made of concrete, which is a building material made from a mixture of broken stone, sand, cement and water. Concrete was poured continuously by a team of 1,532 people until February 22, 1974.
• The construction team used giant plumb bobs to make sure the tower was straight. A plumb bob is an ancient building tool, which was invented by the Egyptians more than 4000 years ago. The tower is almost perfectly straight. It is only off by 1.1 inches.
• Lightning strikes the CN Tower around 75 times per year. Copper “grounding” rods, which run down the side of the tower into the ground, help to prevent damage caused by the electricity.
• There are six glass elevators that visitors can take to go up to the observation deck near the top of the tower. It only takes 58 seconds to make the journey.
• The restaurant on the observation deck actually rotates round in a circle very slowly, so diners can have a complete view of the city while they’re eating. Pretty amazing eh?!