![]() What I found interesting is that are built to withstand five tons of pressure and can hold 10,000 lbs. Each box has a thin film over the top layer of glass, which helps assure a clear view of 1,353 feet straight down and is designed to retract into the building, allowing easy access for cleaning and maintenance. and they are comprised of three layers of half-inch thick glass laminated into one seamless unit. Here is some more information about the Ledge. I cannot recommend this enough if you are on the Skydeck. Sadly there were a ton of people there also taking the same incredible photos, thus it took a while to get in one of the boxes, but it was definitely worth it. ![]() You look out and down at the city and almost feel like you are flying. ![]() It is so cool to be out there on the Ledge. They are glass boxes that extend out 4.3 feet from the skyscraper’s Skydeck. ![]() One of the most interesting parts of Willis Tower (besides the amazing views) was what they call the Ledge. It helped to be able to find things especially when you are not from the city. I liked the fact that they also had boards with highlights of some of the buildings, parks, monuments, etc. It was just before dusk and it was absolutely breathtaking. After the very quick ride up the elevator, we were able to get our first view of the city. And approximately 43,000 miles (69,200 kilometers) of telephone cable runs through the building – enough to stretch across the continental United States 15 times! Those are some crazy stats, lol.Īfter the video, we got in line for the elevator that took us up to the 103 Floor. All that space adds up to about 222,500 tons – that’s 445,000,000 lbs., 201,849,000 kg, or almost 20,000 city buses! The building also contains 25,000 miles (40,223 kilometers) of electrical cable. The Willis Tower building has 4.5 million gross square feet (418,064 gross square meters) of floor space or roughly 101 football fields. Sadly the elevator is a closed box so we weren’t able to see the view going up as we did at Lookout Tower Harbour Center and the Space Needle, but it was still amazing. Earlier I said the elevators were fast, well they operate at 1,600 feet per minute. Visibility from the Skydeck is approximately 40-50 miles. On a clear day, they say you can see four states: Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan. The tower itself is 1,450 feet high (1,730 feet including twin antenna towers), and is the eighth-tallest building in the world however, it is the second tallest building in North America and the Western Hemisphere. Below is a video from their website sharing highlights and information about the building as well as a virtual tour. Like it said it’s really short, but gave some information about Willis Tower, its history, and its name change from Sears Tower to Willis Tower (it still hasn’t stuck with anyone in Chicago either, lol). Once that was done, we went into a little theatre and watched a short little video called The Skydeck Experience. We had bought a combo ticket at the Art Institute so we just had to the elevator and get our pictures taken. ![]() On a side note, the Skydeck Experience opened on June 22, 1974. Apparently we are not alone in wanting to see the phenomenal views, because it was stated that approximately 1.5 million tourists visit the Skydeck each year. All right, now that I got that off my chest, I wanted to say, we had a great time on our visit. I will continue to call it by that name on this post, but not without saying first that it will always be the Sears Tower for me. Thus when we were in Chicago in June of 2016, we had to go up to the top of Willis Tower. During our travels, we have been to the top of a few tall buildings such as the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, the Space Needle, and the Vancouver Lookout Tower at Harbour Center in Vancouver. ![]()
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