CN Tower (the world's tallest completed freestanding structure) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The CN Tower, located in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is a communications and tourist Tower standing tall Toronto (təˈrɒntoʊ colloquially pronounced or) is the largest city in Canada and is the provincial capital of Ontario Ontario (ɒnˈtɛrioʊ is a province located in the central part of Canada, the largest by population and second largest after Quebec Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page

The Sears Tower, in Chicago, Illinois. The Sears Tower, a Skyscraper in Chicago, Illinois, has been the tallest building in North America since 1973 Chicago (ʃɪˈkɑːgoʊ is the largest City by population in the state of Illinois and the American Midwest of the United States.

The Eiffel Tower in Paris. The Eiffel Tower (Tour Eiffel /tuʀ ɛfɛl/ is an Iron Tower built Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city

The TV Tower in Prague. The Žižkov Television Tower is a uniquely-designed tower built in Prague between 1985 and 1992. Prague (ˈprɑːg Praha (ˈpraɦa see also other names) is the Capital and Largest city of the Czech Republic.

El Faro towers in Buenos Aires, Argentina one of the tallest towers in the city

Shukhov Tower in Moscow, Russia. El Faro towers ( Torres El Faro) is a complex of two towers 170 meters (525 ft tall each with 47 floors of apartments Buenos Aires is the Capital and largest city of Argentina. It is geographically located on the southern shore of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern The Shukhov radio tower (Шуховская башня also known as the Shabolovka tower is a Broadcasting Tower in Moscow Moscow (Москва́ romanised: Moskvá, IPA: see also other names) is the Capital and the largest city of Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending Currently under threat of demolition.

Towers are tall human-made structures that are always taller than they are wide, usually by a significant margin. Structure is a fundamental and sometimes Intangible notion covering the Recognition, Observation, nature, and Stability of Towers are generally built to take advantage of their height, and can stand alone or as part of a larger structure. Height is the measurement of vertical Distance, but has two meanings in common use

History

Towers have been used by mankind since prehistoric times. Some of the earliest surviving examples are the broch structures in northern Scotland, which are conical towerhouses. A Broch is an Iron Age Drystone hollow-walled structure of a type found only in Scotland. Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. A tower house is a particular type of stone structure built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. The Chinese used towers as integrated elements of the Great Wall of China as early as about 210 BC. The Great Wall of China ( or ( is a series of stone and earthen Fortifications in China, built rebuilt and maintained between the 6th century BC and the 16th These and later examples from Phoenian and Roman cultures emphasised the use of a tower in fortification and sentinel roles. Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC For example, watchtower elements are found at Mogador from the first millennium BC, derived from Phoenician or Carthaginian origins, while the Romans utilised octagonal towers^[1] as elements of Diocletian's Palace in Croatia, which monument dates to approximately 300 AD. A watchtower is a type of Fortification used in many parts of the world Essaouira (الصويرة eṣ-ṣauīrah formerly known as Mogador, its older name is a City / Wilaya and tourist resort in the western Moroccan Diocletian's Palace ( Dioklecijanova palača in Croatian) is a building in Split in Croatia that was built by the emperor Diocletian Croatia (Hrvatska ˈxȓvatska officially the Republic of Croatia ( Republika Hrvatska) is a southern Central European country at the crossroads between

A noted incomplete tower is the Hassan Tower in Morocco, where work was abandoned in 1199 AD, and the tower stands today as a monument in its incomplete state. Hassan Tower or Tour Hassan (صومعة حسان is the Minaret of an incomplete Mosque in Rabat, Morocco. Morocco (المغرب "al-Maghrib" officially the Kingdom of Morocco (المملكة المغربية is a country located in North Africa A monument is a structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of past ^[2] Another well known tower is the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Pisa, Italy built from 1173 until 1372. The Leaning Tower of Pisa (Torre pendente di Pisa or simply The Tower of Pisa (it La Torre di Pisa is the Campanile, or freestanding bell tower of the Pisa is a city in Tuscany, central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the Arno River on the Ligurian Sea. The Himalayan Towers are stone towers located chiefly in Tibet built approximately 14th to 15th century. The Himalayan Towers are a series of stone towers located mostly in Tibet. Definitions of Tibet See also Definitions of Tibet Name In English The English word Tibet, like the word for Tibet in most European ^[3]

Some old towers in the United States are the Milwaukee City Hall, built in 1895 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the Woolworth Building, completed in 1913 in New York City. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The Milwaukee City Hall is in Milwaukee Wisconsin, US It was finished in 1895 at which time its Bell tower, at 353 feet (108 m was the third tallest Year 1895 ( MDCCCXCV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year The Woolworth Building, at 57 stories is one of the oldest—and one of the most famous— Skyscrapers in New York City. Year 1913 ( MCMXIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The City of New York

Etymology

Old English torr is from Latin turris via Old French tor. Old French was the Romance Dialect continuum spoken in territories which span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium The Latin term together with Greek τύρσις was loaned from a pre-Indo-European Mediterranean language, connected with the Illyrian toponym Βου-δοργίς. The Illyrian languages are a group of Indo-European languages that were spoken in the western part of the Balkans in former times by groups identified as With the Lydian toponyms Τύρρα, Τύρσα, it has been connected with the ethnonym Τυρρήνιοι as well as with Tusci (from *Turs-ci), the Greek and Latin names for the Etruscans (Kretschmer Glotta 22, 110ff. The Tyrrhenians ( Attic Greek Turrēnoi) or Tyrsenians ( Ionic Tursēnoi, Doric Tursānoi) is an Exonym Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to the culture and way of life of a people of ancient Italy )

Functions of Towers

Skyscrapers

A modern type of tower, the skyscraper, uses less ground space as a ratio of total building interior square footage. A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable Building. There is no official definition or a precise cutoff height above which a building may clearly be classified as a skyscraper Skyscrapers are often not classified as towers, although most have the same design and structure of towers. In the United Kingdom, tall domestic buildings are referred to as tower blocks. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located In the United States, the World Trade Center had the nickname the Twin Towers, a name shared with the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The World Trade Center in New York City, United States (sometimes informally the WTC or Twin Towers) was a complex of seven buildings in Lower Manhattan The Petronas Twin Towers (also known as the Petronas Towers or Twin Towers) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia were the world's tallest buildings Kuala Lumpur (ˈkwɑːləlʊmˈpʊər Malay /kwɑlɑlʊmpʊ/ and locally /kwɑləlʊmpɔ/ or even /kɔlɔmpɔ/ or often abbreviated as K

Strategic Advantages

The tower throughout history has provided its users with an advantage in surveying defensive positions and obtaining a better view of the surrounding areas, including battlefields. They were installed on defensive walls or rolled near a target, see siege tower. See also List of cities with defensive walls A defensive wall is a Fortification used to defend a city or settlement from potential aggressors A siege tower (or in the Middle Ages a Belfry) is a specialized Siege engine, constructed to protect assailants and ladders while approaching Presently, strategic-use towers can be found at prisons or military camps.

Potential Energy

By using gravity to move objects or substances downward, a tower can be used to store items or liquids like a storage silo or a water tower, or aim an object into the earth such as a drilling tower. A silo is a structure for storing bulk materials. Silos are used in Agriculture to store grain (see Grain elevators or fermented feed A water tower, watershed, or elevated water tower is a large elevated water storage container For a detailed diagram of a Petroleum drilling rig, See Drilling rig (petroleum A drilling rig is a machine which creates holes (usually called Ski-jump ramps use the same idea, and in the absence of a natural mountain slope or hill, can be human-made. Ski jumping is a Sport in which skiers go down an "inrun" with a take-off ramp (the jump attempting to go as far as possible

Communication Enhancement

In history, simple towers like lighthouses, bell towers, clock towers, signal towers and minarets were used to communicate information over greater distances. A lighthouse is a Tower, building or framework designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or in older times from a fire and used as an A Tower which contains one or more bells or which is obviously designed to hold bells (even if it has none is a bell tower. A clock tower is a Tower built with one or more (often four Clock faces. For the mountain formation see Minarets (California. Minarets ( Arabic manara (lighthouse منارة but more usually مئذنة In more recent years, radio masts and cell phone towers facilitate communication by expanding the range of the transmitter. Radio masts and towers are typically tall structures designed

Transportation Support

Towers can also be used to support bridges, and can reach heights that rival some of the tallest buildings above-water. Their use is most prevalent in suspension bridges and cable-stayed bridges. This article is concerned with a particular type of suspension bridge the suspended-deck type A The use of the pylon, a simple tower structure, has also helped to build railroad bridges, mass-transit systems, and harbors.

Other Towers

• To access tall or high objects: launch tower, service tower, supply tower, scaffold, tower wagon
• For Tourism: CN Tower ,at 147 stories it has the worlds highest observation deck. A launch tower is constructed on the Launch pad of an unguided Rocket for the purpose of guiding the rocket until it is fast enough for aerodynamic stabilization A service tower is a moving tower usually on rails which is used to raise or assemble a Rocket on its Launch pad. supply tower (sometimes erroneously called a Launch tower) is constructed on the Launch pad of a Rocket to facilitate fueling and loading cargo into the Scaffolding is a temporary framework used to support people and material in the construction or repair of buildings and other large structures The CN Tower, located in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is a communications and tourist Tower standing tall
• To access atmospheric conditions aloft: wind turbine, meteorological measurement tower, tower telescope, solar power station
• To take advantage of the temperature gradient inherent in a height differential: cooling tower, chimney
• To protect from exposure: BREN Tower
• For industrial production: shot tower
• To drop objects: drop tower, bomb tower, diving platform
• To test height-intensive applications: elevator test tower
• To improve structural integrity: thyristor tower
• To mimic towers or provide height for training purposes: fire tower, parachute tower
• As art: Shukhov Tower
• For recreation: rock climbing tower
• As a symbol: Tower of Babel, The Tower (Tarot card), church tower

The term "tower" is also sometimes used to refer to firefighting equipment with an extremely tall ladder designed for use in firefighting/rescue operations involving high-rise buildings. A wind turbine is a rotating machine which converts the Kinetic energy in Wind into Mechanical energy. A measurement tower is a free standing Tower or a removed mast, which carries measuring instruments with Meteorological instruments such as Thermometers A Tower telescope is a telescope with a large refraction length at which the tube is installed inside a tower Solar thermal energy ( STE) is a technology for harnessing Solar energy for Thermal energy ( Heat) Cooling towers are heat removal devices used to transfer process waste heat to the Atmosphere. A chimney is a system for venting hot Flue gases or Smoke from a Boiler, Stove, Furnace or Fireplace to the outside BREN Tower is a guyed steel framework mast, 1527 feet (465 m high on the Nevada Test Site in Nevada, USA. The Shot Tower located in Dubuque Iowa is one of the United States' last standing Shot towers It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places Drop Tower, formerly known as Drop Zone Stunt Tower, are thrill rides of varying sizes but all of the same name owned by five Cedar Fair parks A bomb tower is a lightly constructed Tower, often 100 to 700 feet (30 to 210 meters high built to hold a Nuclear weapon for an above ground nuclear test Diving off a deck into the Great South Bay of Long Islandjpg|thumb|A man dives into the Great South Bay of Long Island. The Express Lift Tower is a former lift testing tower built by the Express Lift Company off the Weedon Road in Northampton, England. A valve hall is a building which contains the valves of the Static inverters of a HVDC plant A fire lookout tower, fire tower or lookout tower, provides housing and protection for a person known as a " Fire lookout " whose duty it A parachute tower is a tower used for the training of parachute jumps The Shukhov radio tower (Шуховская башня also known as the Shabolovka tower is a Broadcasting Tower in Moscow Rock climbing is a Sport in which participants climb up or across natural rock formations or man-made rock walls with the goal of reaching the The Tower of Babel (מגדל בבל Migdal Bavel برج بابل Burj Babil) is a structure featured in chapter 11 of the Book of Genesis, an enormous The Tower (XVI (most common modern name is the sixteenth trump or Major Arcana card in most traditional Tarot decks A steeple, in Architecture, is a tall tower on a building often topped by a Spire.

See also

• Additionally guyed tower
• Bell tower
• Campanile
• Inclined towers
• List of towers
• Partially guyed tower
• Turret
• Watchtower
• World's tallest structures
• World Federation of Great Towers
• Federal Communications Commission re FCC Broadcasting Tower Database (USA)

Notes