Calgary Tower
Sunday, 24th April 2005 by Alex Turnbull
This is Calgary Tower in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. At 190 metres, slightly taller than the Space Needle, so I'm told.
Thanks to Jordon and Jonathan Wilkins.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
During the 1988 Winter Olympics, they mounted a huge gas torch at the top of the tower (symbolic of the Olympic Flame). According to the site, they still fire it up on occasion.
I wonder what that would look like from space!
Probably not all that special – It’s not a very huge flame, though it’s visible around town quite easily. 🙂 I think the statistic is that it costs $10,000 a minute to run the flame, but it’s still lit up a few times a year, especially around Stampede! ~Timban, Calgarian
That was $10,000 a minute back when natural gas was much cheaper. I wonder what the cost is at today’s resource prices? 🙂
they still light the torch for hockey games (NHL and well this year non NHL) and some lacross games and other such events happing in town. just to the south west is the calgary stampede grounds with the saddle dome
10K / minute… yeah… right.
I believe the actual amount, if you are a corporate customer who wishes to light up the Calgary Tower for any number of reasons, you can acquire that service for about 400$ and hour.
nope thats correct, its extremly expensive to run it, i guess you can’t understand how big the flame actually is
On the radio today they were talking about lighting the flame on the tower in memory of the 4 Mounties slain in Mayerthorpe.
The owner of the tower said it cost $1200/hour to keep it lit.
I can confirm what Mark said, $1200/hour