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The CN Tower turns 50 today! Well, it's the 50th anniversary of the opening of the CN Tower today, and about 51 years and 3 months since the CN Tower was topped off by Olga, the Sikorsky helicopter, when she hoisted the last piece of the antenna to the top. Capped at 553.3m or 1,815 feet, the CN Tower was (as we learned to say) the Tallest Freestanding Structure in the World, a title it held for 34 years, and it's been Toronto's most instantly recognizable symbol ever since, even if it now ranks #10 height-wise, with seven skyscrapers and two towers now taller than it. Over the years UrbanToronto has covered some mid-life milestones for the tower, but today let's start by going way back to the beginning... (TV screen goes wavy before refocusing on old-timey file photos)
It was in 1968 when a plan to redevelop Toronto's downtown Rail Lands was unveiled to the public. With CN and CP having moved their marshalling yards out to Vaughan and Scarborough in the preceding years, the mess of tracks on Toronto's doorstep were a prime candidate for removal and densification for a city that was experiencing a huge influx of immigration. Modernist office towers had recently begun popping up at King and Bay, more were coming, and the city was looking to reclaim this land — already been reclaimed from the lake in the previous decades — to become a new neighbourhood.
From the Metro Centre plan, the standout component was a sky-piercing communications tower that would allow Toronto broadcasters to beam their radio and TV station waves to a larger area, and up and over the new tall skyscrapers just to the northeast. Initially conceived with three vertical masts joined to each other by trusses, the tower was eventually the only portion of the plan to evolve and proceed.
Named the CN Tower for Canadian National, the railway whose land the tower would rise on, its initial concept was abandoned and replaced with a tapering tripod of concrete legs that gradually rose to about 1,100 feet in the air, where an 8-storey building would be erected. John Andrews' design then took the concrete another 300 feet up to a smaller observation level — initially called the Space Deck, now known as the Sky Pod — the highest observation level in the world at the time, above it the tower would continue for another 400 feet, but in steel. Transmission equipment was found within the antenna, while the lowest level of the 8-storey pod, the radome, would house dishes to receive signals from elsewhere.
Andrews, an Australian, had trained in architecture in Sydney before heading to Harvard for a Masters programme. While there, Toronto was put on his radar when he and three student colleagues entered the competition to design the new Toronto City Hall, coming in as a runner-up to the Viljo Revell design that was built. Upon graduating from Harvard, Andrews worked with John B. Parkin Associates in Don Mills before setting out on his own in 1962. His second best known Toronto building bears his name, the Andrews Building at University of Toronto Scarborough, a monolithic brutalist structure that follows the top of bank of the Highland Creek valley, and which has been a location for countless films and tv shows. In 1973, his design for the CN Tower in collaboration with Webb Zerafa Menkes Housden Architects and NCK Engineering replaced the early Metro Centre Communications Tower plan, and would become Andrews' most enduring and visited landmark.
For anyone familiar with Mary Wiens from her many years at the CBC — most recently, until 2025 as a contributing producer for Metro Morning — Mary's most recent podcast episode for The Torontonian is another ode to the memory of building the CN Tower. With me as guest co-host, Mary and I recall the feats of engineering and construction that the tower represented in the 1970s. Mary's recordings with Supervising Engineer Jamil Mardukhi are a highlight, while she also interviews CN Tower staff regarding what's it's like to work on a daily basis in this Wonder of the Modern World. (Mary and I also reminisce about our experience on the Edgewalk, when that rather spectacular addition to the CN Tower opened in 2011.)
One of the original spectacular aspects of building the CN Tower was when the crane that was used to help construct the concrete section was replaced by a Skycrane, specifically an American Sikorsky S-64 helicopter nicknamed Olga (for Sikorsky's Russian heritage), which was used to hoist steel sections of the antenna high up into the air... higher, it seemed, than people could believe: this was nothing anyone had seen before!
Holding both much of the tower's transmission equipment and its longstanding height record, the construction of the antenna via repeated lifts of the steel sections made daily news, in particular because one of the first sections did not separate correctly from the helicopter's cables. With minutes of fuel left before Olga would have plummeted to the ground, the section was eventually removed of course, but the potentially deadly process became a gripping daily tale as the tower grew ever taller, its last lift taking place on March 31, 1975.
One of the antenna's steel sections also carries signatures: the piece had been taken to the Canadian National Exhibition in the summer of 1974, and the public were invited to sign their name on it. One of those who added his signature was a then-10-year-old Edward Skira, not yet the President and Co-Publisher of UrbanToronto. Growing up in Willowdale, the construction of the CN Tower — rising at the same time as the Bank of Montreal Tower at First Canadian Place, as can be seen in the image above — was a reason for a trip to see all the excitement building on Toronto's downtown skyline. "These projects cemented my fascination with the skyscrapers that were turning the city into a real metropolis," says Skira.
Following its opening, Torontonians flocked to the tower for their first ride up the speedy glass elevators to get the amazing views of the city and the lake, hoping to be there on days when the mist over Niagara Falls might be made out on the distant southern horizon, or on an evening when a spectacular sunset might cover the city's skies in vibrant hues, or when the lights of the Financial Core would sparkle at night. Lunches and dinners in the revolving restaurant have become a mainstay of visitors experiences to the city, often surprising diners with how good the meals are even when the view means the Tower might not need to do such a good job.
In 1994, a glass floor was added to the Lower Observation Level which became a favourite place for bold visitors to freak out their friends by jumping up and down on the panels, or even merely walking over them, seemingly unsupported above 1,100 feet of thin air. In 2018, the glass floor was expanded significantly at the same time that another glass floor section was added to the Main Observation level above, making the frights/thrills more frightening/thrilling too, while adding reflections that are a challenge for photographers to deal with!
In 2007, colour-changing LED lights were added to the elevator shafts and at every narrowing of the antenna above, making for a much stronger nighttime presence for the Tower. Throughout most the of night the glow is a constant colour (sometimes set differently to honour particular events, such as recent blue and yellow lighting to remember Ukraine during the protracted war being waged on it by Russia), but for a few minutes at the top of every hour, the lights are set to "dance," creating shows for locals and visitors alike.
In 2014, Toronto was scrambling to tidy itself and be ready for the world stage hemispheric stage as it would host the Pan Am and ParaPan Am Games in 2015. A March 2014 visit to the CN Tower showed us that what was true for concrete buildings everywhere was true here too: concrete does not age that gracefully, not like stone, and the base of the CN Tower's legs were now showing many blemishes and virtual varicose veins. Our April Fools story that year would therefore be an affectionate skewering of this ultimate skewer, suggesting that a contest to design a recladding of the tower before the Games was underway? Would the tower be covered in aluminum panels? Brick veneer? Submit your entries! In the end, paint was applied to the tower's concrete base, covering up the age spots. We don't know if our story was the impetus for that clean-up work, or if the was always the plan... nah, it was us! We did that!
Something we definitely can't lay any claim to, but which made a big difference to the Indoor Observation Level in 2018, was the replacement of much of the original exterior with floor to ceiling windows. While generally providing improved views and a stunning, clean interior design overall, the new windows also make the Tower views accessible to the young and those in wheelchairs.
This year, the Lower Observation Level was reworked in time for the 50th anniversary celebrations, now allowing visitors to lean out over the city without committing to the whole Edgewalk experience, while that remains a popular attraction and a bucket list item for many. As the CN Tower endures as Toronto's most quickly recognizable symbol, its owners the Canada Lands Company seem intent on maintaining the Tower's place in the city, in popular culture, and in the hearts of its fans.
UrbanToronto will peek back in whenever something new happens here, but in the meantime, you can learn more about it from our Database file, linked below. If you'd like, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Project Forum thread or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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