Tower of the Americas, Observation tower in downtown San Antonio, United States.
The Tower of the Americas is a concrete observation tower in downtown San Antonio, United States, rising 229 meters (750 feet) above the city. The structure contains three floors with viewing decks and a rotating restaurant at the top.
The construction arose for HemisFair '68, a World's Fair event in 1968 that established San Antonio as an important urban center in Texas. The structure remained the tallest observation tower in the United States for 28 years until 1996.
The Chart House restaurant at the summit prepares regional Texas dishes while diners enjoy continuous views through the slowly rotating platform. The name recalls San Antonio's role as a gateway to the American continents and was chosen for the 1968 World's Fair.
Three glass high-speed elevators carry visitors to the viewing decks, which remain open until 10 PM Sunday through Thursday and 11 PM on weekends. The ride takes about 60 seconds and offers an initial glimpse of the surroundings through the elevator walls.
The 1.4-million-pound top house, holding the observation decks and restaurant, was assembled at ground level and then raised inch by inch up the concrete shaft on twenty-four steel lifting rods, a job that took twenty days. On October 30, 1967, some lifting cables snapped and the top house came to rest tilted on the shaft until oil-field pipes replaced them.
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