Skylon Tower

Listen first. Beneath the traffic and the voices on the street, there is a low, steady roar. It never stops. It is the sound of the Niagara River falling over a cliff, a short walk from where you stand. Now look up. A pale concrete shaft rises above you, and near the top, a broad disc holds the sky. Small yellow capsules climb the outside of the tower, slowly and steadily, like beads on a string.

This is the Skylon Tower, on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, in Ontario. It opened in 1965. It has been part of the skyline here ever since. Many visitors walk past it on the way to the water. They treat it as a landmark for finding their way. But the tower was built for one purpose, and that purpose is simple. It lets you see the whole of the falls at once, from above, the way a bird sees it.

From the street, the top of the tower stands roughly 160 metres high. Here is the first surprise. Measure from the bottom of the gorge, where the river lands after the drop, and the height grows to well over two hundred metres. The falls carved that gorge over thousands of years. So the tower stands on high ground above a deep cut in the rock. This is why the view from the top feels even higher than the numbers suggest.

The tower is not a single slim column. Look closely at the shaft. The elevators run in tracks on its outer face, and the cabins are walled with glass. This design was bold for its time. Most tall buildings hide their elevators inside a core. Here, the ride itself is part of the experience. Locals often call the bright yellow cabins the yellow bugs, and from a distance, the name fits.

The ride up takes less than a minute. In that short climb, the ground drops away quickly. The rooftops of the tourist district shrink below you. The river appears, green and white, and then the falls come into view. Stand near the glass if you can. If heights make you nervous, face the shaft instead and turn around at the top. The doors open onto a calm, quiet space after all that motion.

At the top, there are several levels. There is an observation deck, with both indoor and outdoor viewing areas. Above the observation level, there is a revolving dining room. It turns slowly, a full circle in about an hour. Diners do not have to move. The view moves for them. Over one meal, the falls, the river, the city, and the far horizon all pass by the window in turn.

Now, let us look at what is in front of you. The largest curve of water is the Horseshoe Falls, also called the Canadian Falls. Its shape gives it the name. Most of the river flows over this edge. To the left, across the border, are the American Falls. Beside them is a thin, separate ribbon of water called the Bridal Veil Falls. A small island divides the two. From here, you can see all three falls together. Few places on the ground give you this.

Watch the mist. Above the Horseshoe Falls, a white cloud rises almost all the time. On a sunny day, look for a rainbow inside it. The rainbow appears when the sun is behind you and the spray is in front. From the tower, you look down on the mist rather than up into it. This is the second surprise for many visitors. From above, the spray looks soft and slow, while the water below it crashes with enormous force.

Follow the river downstream with your eyes. It narrows into the deep gorge and turns north. On a clear day, the view reaches far beyond the falls. Some visitors spot the shore of Lake Ontario in the distance. On the clearest days, people say they can see the outline of Toronto across the lake. To the south and east, the city of Buffalo, in New York State, sits on the American side. Haze often hides these far views, so treat them as a bonus.

Closer in, look at the boats on the river below. Tour boats carry passengers in rain ponchos toward the foot of the Horseshoe Falls. From up here, they look like small toys pushing into the spray. Look also at the bridges that cross the gorge. They connect two countries. People drive and walk across them every day. The border runs down the middle of the river, and the water, of course, ignores it.

At night, the tower offers a different view. Coloured lights shine onto the falls after dark, and the water turns pink, blue, or green. During the warmer months, fireworks often burst above the river on certain evenings. From the top of the tower, you look across at the fireworks, not up at them. The tower itself also glows at night. People walking through the streets below use it to find their way back to their hotels.

At the base of the tower, the mood is very different. There are shops, an arcade with games, and places to eat. The sounds of bells and music come from the games. Families gather here before or after the ride. The tower stands at the edge of the busy tourist district, close to the hill of attractions known as Clifton Hill. From the base, a short walk downhill brings you to the railing above the falls.

Think about the age of this place. When the tower opened in the mid-1960s, people came to Niagara Falls for honeymoons, family holidays, and day trips. They still do. The cars and the cameras have changed. The view from the top has hardly changed at all. The river still pours over the same edge, though very slowly, over centuries, the water wears the rock away and the falls move back upstream.

Before you leave, stand still for a moment. Listen again for that low roar under the noise of the street. Look up at the yellow cabins climbing and sinking along the shaft. Somewhere in one of them, another visitor is seeing the falls from above for the first time. And as you walk toward the water, notice how the tower stays in sight behind you, a pale marker over the trees, pointing at the sky.