Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"The Space Needle is an observation tower in Seattle, Washington, a landmark of the Pacific Northwest, and an icon of Seattle. It was built in the Seattle Center for the 1962 World's Fair, which drew over 2.3 million visitors, when nearly 20,000 people a day used its elevators.
Once the tallest structure west of the Mississippi River, it is 605 ft (184 m) high, 138 ft (42 m) wide, and weighs 9,550 tons. It is built to withstand winds of up to 200 miles per hour (89 m/s) and earthquakes of up to 9.1 magnitude, as strong as the 1700 Cascadia earthquake. It also has 25 lightning rods.
It has an observation deck at 520 ft (160 m) and the rotating SkyCity restaurant at 500 ft (150 m). The downtown Seattle skyline, as well as the Olympic and Cascade Mountains, Mount Rainier, Mount Baker, Elliott Bay and surrounding islands can be viewed from the top of the Needle. Photographs of the Seattle skyline often show the Space Needle prominently, above skyscrapers and Mount Rainier.
Visitors can reach the top of the Space Needle by elevators that travel at 10 miles per hour (4.5 m/s). The trip takes 41 seconds. On windy days, the elevators slow to 5 miles per hour (2.2 m/s). On April 19, 1999, the city's Landmarks Preservation Board designated it a historic landmark."
As for the book, GoodReads (
visit link) adds:
"Space Needle: The Spirit of Seattle
by Knute Berger
4.20 · Rating Details · 10 Ratings · 4 Reviews
Conceived and constructed 50 years ago, Berger details a broad spectrum of people who were associated with the construction, design and management of Seattle's Space Needle, capturing forgotten anecdotes and details along the way. Covering visits by the Kennedys, astronauts, Elvis, as well as real kings and emperors, Berger's account includes forgotten history, such as recalling that back in the ‘60s, an upcoming comedian named Bill Cosby hosted a daily radio from the Needle. The Space Needle, which began as a doodle in a hotel in Stuttgart, Germany, became a 21st-century symbol that has thrived, for most of its life to date, in the 20th century.
“Even if one has never been to the top, its presence on the skyline tells a story each and every day, whether it seems to hover like an alien ship landing on top of Queen Anne, or has lost everything but its slender legs in the gray clouds, or catches the brilliant light of a summer sunset. Day to day, in ways great and small, it is truly ‘a tower unique and inspiring.’” (less)
Hardcover, 184 pages
Published 2012 by Documentary Media LLC
ISBN 1933245255 (ISBN13: 9781933245256)
Edition LanguageEnglish"