What is the name of the 553-meter communications and observation tower in Toronto? The answer is the CN Tower.
The CN Tower, short for Canada’s National Tower, is Toronto’s best-known skyline landmark. Its full height is 553.33 metres, including the antenna, and it was built to improve television and radio transmission in a city where tall buildings were beginning to interfere with broadcast signals.
Construction began in 1973, the tower was completed in 1975, and it opened to the public in June 1976. For decades it was recognized as the world’s tallest freestanding structure, until Dubai’s Burj Khalifa surpassed it in 2009. The tower remains a major telecommunications hub as well as a tourist attraction.
Its main pod contains observation levels, including the Glass Floor and the Main Observation Level, while the revolving 360 Restaurant sits higher above the city. The CN Tower is sometimes confused with Toronto’s Skylon Tower, but Skylon Tower is located across the border in Niagara Falls. The Space Needle is another famous observation tower, but it stands in Seattle.