SPACE NEEDLE

The "Aiguille de verre" attracts nearly 1.3 million visitors per year, and nearly 60 million since its opening. It dominates the city in its green park where there is also the Chihuly garden, the moPOP, a restaurant hall, children's playgrounds and lots of entertainment all day long. Recently renovated for $100 million, it inaugurated its The Loupe platform at the end of 2018, a glass floor on the first floor, guaranteed to thrill! This futuristic tower, at the time the tallest building west of the Mississippi, became the city's landmark. A "space needle" 185 metres high. Once out of the glass elevator, which climbs at a dizzying speed for 43 seconds, you discover the city through glass windows: downtown, Elliott bay, Queen Anne, Lake Union and even the Cascade Mountains and the Olympic Peninsula. You can sit at one of the tables of the panoramic bar Atmos café & Wine bar, which serves as a pretty mixed board with its glasses. Go there during the day if possible on a day when the horizon is clear, and once night falls to admire the city and its lights, a magical moment (a 24-hour double entry ticket exists). Then go down to the first floor for the big thrill of the glass floor which almost goes around the needle. We can follow the path of the elevator that goes up and down under our feet, the tiny cars at the bottom, what a vertigo It is in continuity with the side windows offering a vertical and horizontal view!

History. It was built during the 1962 Universal Exposition, called the Century 21 Exposition, which focused on the "21st century and the progress of science and technology in a perspective of world peace". In the middle of the Cold War, its main purpose was to show American omnipotence against its Soviet rival, haloed by the success of its Sputnik satellite launched in 1957. The first steps on the moon would wait until 1969, but already the Space Needle and its flying saucer look testify to the Americans' desire to embark on the race to space. The Monorail, which links the Seattle Center and its Space Needle to the Westlake Center, also dates from the World Expo and also looks futuristic.