Under the Maple Leaves
The Eighth Wonder?
“Have you already been to the CN Tower?”- “Not yet”- "Oh, that’s the very first thing to do in Toronto-an absolute must! This place is very special. We call it The Eights Wonder”. I heard this “song of praise” more than once (to be precise, I heard it more than five times, too)- so I couldn’t help getting curious about this Torontonian high attraction. Officially being the World’s Tallest Building, high it surely was! Every inch of its 553,33 m seemed to be proudly reaching for the sky thus inevitably dwarfing the nearby located Skydome and making a mockery of its name. Having since long ago secured its place in the Guinness Book and totally dominating the surroundings, the Tower had every reason to be arrogant and condescending at the same time. Its cold silvery glimmer might have looked very impressive- had I not been to quite a few similar places before. Both the Eiffel Tower and the Round Tower in Copenhagen- to name but several of them- provided a view that was as striking in every detail as that obtained from the CN pinnacle, the Sky Pod. One was therefore strongly tempted to resort to the notoriously indifferent question “So what?!”. The Guinness Book is full of unusual, outstanding and absolutely unique things, and if the tower weighs about as much as 23214 large elephants, many people would probably choose to meet and observe such an amazingly big herd. THAT would really be a lifetime experience! CN actually does serve one purpose the elephants would be useless for: it takes care of the radio and TV transmissions quality (its predecessors simply couldn’t cope with an invasion of skyscrapers marching in onto the city territory in the beginning of 1960s).Yet, not being a Toronto resident, I couldn’t appreciate this contribution into the city’s well-being as fully as they do. So I was looking for something that could make a difference. I found it on the Glass Floor.
A human mind may play all sorts of amazing tricks with its respective body. For instance, a woman can imagine herself into a false pregnancy with no final product but all the right symptoms. Shipwreck survivors perfectly equipped with food, water and warm clothes would die of sheer terror within a couple of days if not hours. Yet, it takes something pretty special to make a perfectly healthy person freeze unable to move a step on a perfectly straight floor- and that’s exactly what happens from time to time in an ordinary hall located within the CN Tower. This hall is usually filled with casual tourists happily stretching their legs after having waited for about 45 minutes in a line for the elevators. Many people find themselves in front of a piece of glass serving as a part of the floor during the very first stroll. If, driven by a natural curiosity, they cast a glance at the glass, they will see nothing but a mass of colourless air. (Miniature human shapes and pavements looking like grey bands are so distant that they can be easily overlooked or fully ignored). It looks like a grey hole, and- though it’s explicitly stated that the glass is superreliable (it can withstand the weight of 14 large hippos!)- one’s mind perceives it as such. Consequently, the mind issues a harsh command to the legs, and they stop in mid-air. A short but intense struggle begins- to move or not to move?! Most often they do, and a resulting movement feels like “I have overcome!” Hence children screaming with delight and throwing themselves on the floor, full body. They are joined by quite a score of grown-ups exploiting their cameras to the fullest. The whole atmosphere is that of a party- and that’s by far the best and most lasting impression of the visit. (And the funniest aspect of the situation is that the whole level is made of exactly the same material as the Glass Floor, but that never occures to anyone because the rest of it is not transparent!)
Quite good as it is, but hardly good enough to be called a Wonder of the World.
“Have you already been to the CN Tower?”- “Not yet”- "Oh, that’s the very first thing to do in Toronto-an absolute must! This place is very special. We call it The Eights Wonder”. I heard this “song of praise” more than once (to be precise, I heard it more than five times, too)- so I couldn’t help getting curious about this Torontonian high attraction. Officially being the World’s Tallest Building, high it surely was! Every inch of its 553,33 m seemed to be proudly reaching for the sky thus inevitably dwarfing the nearby located Skydome and making a mockery of its name. Having since long ago secured its place in the Guinness Book and totally dominating the surroundings, the Tower had every reason to be arrogant and condescending at the same time. Its cold silvery glimmer might have looked very impressive- had I not been to quite a few similar places before. Both the Eiffel Tower and the Round Tower in Copenhagen- to name but several of them- provided a view that was as striking in every detail as that obtained from the CN pinnacle, the Sky Pod. One was therefore strongly tempted to resort to the notoriously indifferent question “So what?!”. The Guinness Book is full of unusual, outstanding and absolutely unique things, and if the tower weighs about as much as 23214 large elephants, many people would probably choose to meet and observe such an amazingly big herd. THAT would really be a lifetime experience! CN actually does serve one purpose the elephants would be useless for: it takes care of the radio and TV transmissions quality (its predecessors simply couldn’t cope with an invasion of skyscrapers marching in onto the city territory in the beginning of 1960s).Yet, not being a Toronto resident, I couldn’t appreciate this contribution into the city’s well-being as fully as they do. So I was looking for something that could make a difference. I found it on the Glass Floor.
A human mind may play all sorts of amazing tricks with its respective body. For instance, a woman can imagine herself into a false pregnancy with no final product but all the right symptoms. Shipwreck survivors perfectly equipped with food, water and warm clothes would die of sheer terror within a couple of days if not hours. Yet, it takes something pretty special to make a perfectly healthy person freeze unable to move a step on a perfectly straight floor- and that’s exactly what happens from time to time in an ordinary hall located within the CN Tower. This hall is usually filled with casual tourists happily stretching their legs after having waited for about 45 minutes in a line for the elevators. Many people find themselves in front of a piece of glass serving as a part of the floor during the very first stroll. If, driven by a natural curiosity, they cast a glance at the glass, they will see nothing but a mass of colourless air. (Miniature human shapes and pavements looking like grey bands are so distant that they can be easily overlooked or fully ignored). It looks like a grey hole, and- though it’s explicitly stated that the glass is superreliable (it can withstand the weight of 14 large hippos!)- one’s mind perceives it as such. Consequently, the mind issues a harsh command to the legs, and they stop in mid-air. A short but intense struggle begins- to move or not to move?! Most often they do, and a resulting movement feels like “I have overcome!” Hence children screaming with delight and throwing themselves on the floor, full body. They are joined by quite a score of grown-ups exploiting their cameras to the fullest. The whole atmosphere is that of a party- and that’s by far the best and most lasting impression of the visit. (And the funniest aspect of the situation is that the whole level is made of exactly the same material as the Glass Floor, but that never occures to anyone because the rest of it is not transparent!)
Quite good as it is, but hardly good enough to be called a Wonder of the World.