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Subj:.....The
Sears Tower Skydeck (S696)
From: ft.apache on 5/14/2010
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Source1: http://www.theskydeck.com/theledge.asp
Source2: http://www.the-skydeck.com/tour.asp
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Not content with
having the tallest building in America, the
owners of Willis
Tower in Chicago have installed four glass box
viewing platforms
which stick out of the building 103 floors up!
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The
balconies are suspended 1,353 feet in the air
and
jut out four feet from the building's Skydeck. |
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Visitors
get their first view from The Ledge --
four
glass balconies suspended from the Tower.
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Designers
say the platforms - collectively dubbed
The
Ledge - have been purposely created to make visitors feel as they are floating
above the city. |
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The
reward is unobstructed views of Chicago from the building's west side and
a heart-stopping vista of the street and Chicago River below - for those
brave enough to look straight down. It's like walking on ice. |
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John
Huston, one of the owners of the Willis Tower, even admitted to getting
'a little queasy' when he ventured out on to the balcony. However, after
30 or 40 trips, he seems to have gotten used to it.
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Long
way up: Even the floor of the platforms are glass - few are brave enough
to look straight down. Although some adults felt dizzy after experiencing
The Ledge, children seemed to take it in their stride. |
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Fearless:
Five-year-old Anna Kane spreads out on the floor
of
the 10ft square box which is 1,353 ft up.
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Thrill
seekers: The boxes jut out four feet from the building and were specifically
designed to attract visitors. The Willis Tower has always been about
superlatives - tallest, largest, most iconic. |
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The
Ledge is the world's most awesome view, the world's
most
precipitous view, the view with the most wow in the
world.
The balconies are 10ft high and 10ft wide, can
hold
five tons, and have glass which is 1.5 inch thick.
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Inspiration
came from the hundreds of forehead prints visitors left behind on The
Skydeck windows every week. Now, staff have a new glass surface to clean:
floors! |
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The
Ledge is accessible from The Skydeck which attracts 25,000 visitors on
clear days. They each pay $15 to take an elevator ride up to the 103rd
floor of the 110-story office building that opened in 1973. |
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 The
Willis Tower is 1,450 feet (443 meters) high - 1,730 feet
(520 meters) including twin antenna towers.
The
Skydeck is 1,353 feet (412 meters) above the ground.
The
lowest level of Willis Tower is 43 feet (13 meters
below the Franklin St. elevation.
The
combined weight of the building is 222,500 tons -
that's 445,000,000 lbs. or 201,849,000 kg.
The
cost of building the Willis Tower was in excess of $150 million.
The
Willis Tower, opened in 1973, took 3 years to build.
The
building has 4.5 million gross square feet
(418,064 gross square meters) of floor space.
On
a clear day, you can see four states - Illinois, Indiana,
Wisconsin and Michigan. Visibility from the Skydeck is
approximately 40-50 miles (65 - 80 kilometers).
The
average sway of the building is approximately 6 inches
(152 millimeters) from true center.
The
Willis Tower has approximately 16,100 bronze-tinted windows.
6
roof-mounted robotic window washing machines clean
all 16,100 windows.
Willis
Tower elevators operate as fast as 1,600 feet
(488 meters) per minute - among the fastest in the world.
The
Willis Tower contains 25,000 miles (40,223 kilometers)
of electrical cable.
Approximately
43,000 miles (69,200 kilometers) of telephone
cable runs through the building.
The
Willis Tower was designed for more than 12,000 occupants.
Approximately
25,000 people enter the building each day.
Approximately
1.3 million tourists visit the Skydeck each year.
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