CN Tower

The CN Tower (French: Tour CN) is a 553.33 m-high (1,815.4 ft) concrete communications and observation tower in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Built on the former Railway Lands, it was completed in 1976, becoming the world's tallest free-standing structure and world's tallest tower at the time. It held both records for 34 years until the completion of Burj Khalifa and Canton Tower in 2010. It is now the 3rd tallest tower in the world and remains the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere, a signature icon of Toronto's skyline, and a symbol of Canada, attracting more than two million international visitors annually.

Its name "CN" originally referred to Canadian National, the railway company that built the tower. Following the railway's decision to divest non-core freight railway assets, prior to the company's privatization in 1995, it transferred the tower to the Canada Lands Company, a federal Crown corporation responsible for real estate development. Since the name CN Tower became common in daily usage, the abbreviation was eventually expanded to Canadian National Tower or Canada's National Tower. However, neither of these names is commonly used.

CN Tower (Edmonton)

CN Tower is an office tower in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It stands at 111 metres (364 ft) or 26 storeys tall, and was built and formerly owned by the Canadian National Railway Company. At the time of its construction it was the first skyscraper in Edmonton, and the tallest building in Western Canada. Its reign as Western Canada's tallest building lasted from 1966 to 1971, when it was surpassed by Edmonton House.

History

Designed by Abugov & Sunderland, it was western Canada's tallest office tower when completed in 1966. It is now owned by Calgary based Strategic Group, and the last remaining CN employees moved out of the building in 2008.

Built to overlook the old Canadian National rail yard, the building's basement once housed Edmonton's main passenger railway station, until the Canadian National railway tracks leading to Downtown Edmonton were removed in 1998. Since then, passenger trains serving Edmonton have stopped at the Edmonton railway station situated near the then active Edmonton City Centre Airport (shut down in 2013).