CN Tower, Toronto, Canada: Tallest Structure in the Western Hemisphere
The CN Tower / La Tour CN, Toronto, Canada
When you’re a chicken, it helps to have brave friends. During my recent trip to Toronto for the TBEX conference, I wanted to visit the CN Tower, the tallest structure in the Western Hemisphere. I knew that a highlight of visiting the attraction is the ability to walk over a glass floor, with a view straight down 1,122 feet. I also knew that chances were good I would not be able to maneuver my jelly knees over the glass.
I enlisted my friend Karon, who blogs at All Things Lifestyle, to come with me. She’s jumped out of an airplane, so I was pretty confident she could handle standing on a 2 ½ ” thick tempered glass plate.
When you visit the CN Tower, you have options. You can take the 58-second elevator ride to the glass floor level, which is connected to the Outdoor SkyTerrace. You can also take a photo one story up on the LookOut Level. For an additional fee, you can take the special SkyPod elevator up an additional 33 stories, to 1,465 feet.
Within the building there’s also a 3D movie theater, the “Himalamazon” motion theater ride, the 360Restaurant, and a gift shop. For the exceptional daredevil, there is one more can’t-miss experience: Edge Walk, the world’s highest full circle, hands-free walk, on a 5-foot wide ledge encircling the top of the Tower’s main pod, 1,168 feet — or 116 stories — above the ground. I’m not prone to text-speak, but O.M.G.!
An EdgeWalk group at CN Tower, minus me. Photo credit: EdgeWalk
Regardless of which level you end up on, you’ll get a fantastic view of Toronto, Lake Ontario, and the surrounding region, up to 100 miles away. Apparently, you can even see Niagara Falls under ideal conditions.
The view of downtown Toronto from the CN Tower
The 256-square foot glass floor was built to withstand the weight of 14 hippos, so I should not have been scared of it breaking and plunging me earthbound to my doom. Of course, logic was not part of the conversation going on in my brain. I wasn’t the only one who felt the same; there were plenty of people crawling on it because they couldn’t stand.
This is how most people enjoy the glass floor, including Karon:
The Glass Floor at the CN Tower
This is my attempt, and my triumph in being to say I touched it:
Look how brave I am.
This is the view from the glass floor:
There are 1,122 feet from here to there.
The CN Tower is an engineering marvel. The entire structure weighs 130,000 tons, which includes 53,000 cubic yards of concrete, 600 tons of structural steel, and 5,000 tons of reinforcing steel. In high winds, the top of the structure is designed to “give” as much as 3 feet in any direction. It opened in 1976, and until 2010, it held the title of world’s tallest tower, building and freestanding structure. It was surpassed in 2010 by the 2,722-foot Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
CN Tower
301 Front Street West Toronto, Ontario M5V 2T6 Canada
(416) 868-6937
Great story on our visit & the CN Tower! And you did very well!! Except, of course, when you refused to look down through the elevator floor window. 🙂
That is just crazy. Why anyone would be willing to strap themselves to a tether and walk outside along that catwalk is a mystery to me. I would never be brave enough for that. I’m impressed Karon.
If I’d gone with you gals, I would have held you up! Brings back memories…
I refuse to stand on the glass floor either and I spend the entire time telling my kids to be careful while other people are jumping up and down on the floor! I would never, never, never do the EdgeWalk!
I would have been the same way if my kids were with me…only my daughter would have done it, though!
I am ok with the glass floor even with my fear of heights but the EdgeWalk I will not do. Ever. Even for millions and trillions of dollars. 😉
I’m so glad you enjoyed your time at the CN Tower, Traci.
I’m so sad we didn’t get to meet at TBEX! Or did we? It’s all a blur now. TBEX 2014?
I don’t think we met…but maybe next year! Anxiously waiting to hear where it will be in 2014.
OMG indeed! Looking at the pictures alone makes me want to puke. I wonder how I’d feel when I’m there. But still want to try. 😉
See, what I’m missing is that willingness to try!
Glad you got to visit the tower, Traci! I’m so bummed I didn’t get to do this with you ladies. I was so close. I’m glad you got to touch the glass though 🙂 This would have been such a great experience to look down. I probably would have felt dizzy afterwards though. I don’t think there’s anything in the world that would make me do that EdgeWalk. Great picture of the view!
I would have loved your company on the sidelines, watching Karon! 🙂
YOu are so brave. I could not do that at all. If you can do this then you can do Instagram. LOL 🙂
Toronto is a beautiful city! Unfortunately on my visit I was unable to get to the top of the CN Tower… Happy to see you did! Great post!
Thanks! There’s just so much to do in Toronto; impossible to see it all in one trip!
Oh, that edgewalk would be the end of me! I don’t know if I could even look down through that glass floor!
Glad to know I’m not alone! 🙂
Wow! kudos to you for mustering enough courage to even try out that walk on the glass. Trust me I would have never even stepped on it. so scary!
We love your blog. Next summer we are headed east and will have to ask you for suggestions.
Thanks! And yes, please let me know where you’re headed next year!
This must be breathtaking and mind blowing experience! How does it feels to be on the top? I wonder if I am brave enough to withstand the height…But I would love to try this!