What are the Dimensions of the Space Needle?

The Space Needle is one of the highly recognizable architectures in the U.S., which is found specifically in the coastal city of Seattle in Washington. Its unique design and astounding height never fail to amaze tourists and visitors from all parts of the world. More importantly, it has a number of interesting features such as a rotating restaurant, a gift shop as well as an observation deck. Because it is very high, people who wish to go up this facility can actually see a panoramic view of the nearby areas like the Elliott Bay, Mount Baker and Cascade Mountains. To find out more about this beautiful structure, it is good to know the different dimensions of the Space Needle.

Dimensions of the Space Needle

From the top floor, which is also the observation deck of the building, the height of the Space Needle is measured at 160 meters or 520 feet. Meanwhile, the aircraft beacon or antenna has a height of 184 meters or 605 feet. This structure is smaller than the Stratosphere in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois and the CN Tower in Toronto, Ontario. In terms of width, it measures 42 meters or 138 feet. If you are to weigh this structure, the result must be close to somewhere around 9,550 tons.

To fight off the disastrous effects of earthquakes, the building is designed to withstand a magnitude of about 9.1. In addition, it was also created to outlast the damaging effects of winds, even those with velocities of up to 320 kilometers per hour. In order to fight off damages caused by lightning, it is strategically equipped with 25 lightning rods. One of the highly recognizable features of this place is the SkyCity restaurant, which is 152 meters high or 500 feet above the ground. It has elevators, which operate at the speed of 16 kilometers per hour.

Additional Information and Other Interesting Details

The Space Needle was constructed some time between 1961 and 1962. To ensure its stability against earthquakes, a hole was created for its foundation, which measured 40 meters or 120 feet across and 10 meters or 30 feet deep. Because of its beautiful design, it was already featured in numerous blockbuster films such as “Sleepless in Seattle” in 1993, “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me” in 1999 and “The Parallax View” in 1974. Furthermore, it was also featured in numerous hit television shows like “Frasier,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Dark Angel.” Because of its significance, many sports teams based on the area used its image as part of their logos like the now defunct NBA team Seattle SuperSonics as well as the Seattle Sounders FC, which is a Major League Soccer team.