Tower

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CN Tower (the world's tallest) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
CN Tower (the world's tallest) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
High-tech TV Tower in Prague.
High-tech TV Tower in Prague.
Fire-observation watchtower in Kostroma, Russia.
Fire-observation watchtower in Kostroma, Russia.

Towers are tall man-made buildings, always (and usually much) taller than they are wide. Towers are generally built to take advantage of their height and can stand alone or as part of a larger structure. Examples of the various uses of towers include:

Skyscrapers are often not classified as towers, although most have the same design and structure of towers. In the United Kingdom, tall domestic buildings are referred to as tower blocks. In the United States, the now-destroyed World Trade Center had the nickname the Twin Towers, a name shared with the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

[edit] History

Probably the oldest tower still standing is the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Pisa, Italy built from 1173 until 1372. The oldest towers in the United States are the Milwaukee City Hall, built in 1895 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the Woolworth Building, completed in 1913 in New York City.

[edit] Etymology

Old English torr is from Latin turris via Old French tor. The Latin term together with Greek τύρσις was loaned from a pre-Indo-European Mediterranean language, connected with the Illyrian toponym Βου-δοργίς. With the Lydian toponyms Τύρρα, Τύρσα, it has been connected with the ethnonym Τυρσήνοί as well as with Tusci (from *Turs-ci), the Greek and Latin names for the Etruscans (Kretschmer Glotta 22, 110ff.)

The term "tower" is also sometimes used to refer to firefighting equipment with an extremely tall ladder designed for use in firefighting/rescue operations involving high-rise buildings.

[edit] See also

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