Toronto's CN Tower wows visitors with new glass-floor elevator

TORONTO - After losing its 32-year status as the tallest freestanding structure on the planet, Toronto's iconic CN Tower has something new to brag about: the world's highest glass-floor elevator that offers visitors a thrilling perspective of the city.

Shooting upwards at 22 kilometres per hour, visitors can now watch the ground below them fall away as the elevator soars 346 metres in just 58 seconds.

For those who dare to stand atop one of the elevator's two narrow glass floor panels - each a little more than five centimetres thick - the trip is perhaps even more harrowing on the way down.

Plunging down the concrete elevator shaft with a view of some of the mechanisms, the nail-biting perspective gives riders the sense they might crash right into the ground.

But of course that won't happen, a CN Tower staff member assured a group of elementary school students from Cobourg, Ont., who were visiting on a field trip.

"It can hold 14 hippos, so it's very, very safe," he said.

But that didn't stop some students from cowering against the wall and holding their ears as they popped during the rapid descent.

"I thought it was really fun and freaky too," said Grade 5 student Emma Napper.

"I was scared," admitted fellow student Christian Young. "I didn't expect it to be like that."

And while all were impressed, some were a little taken by surprise.

"I thought it was cool," Grade 4 student Mackenzie Pattison said. "I really did think it was going to be all glass, though."

Dubbed a North American first and the highest in the world, the recently completed elevator opened Wednesday to the public. But Jack Robinson, the tower's chief operating officer, insisted the timing has nothing to do with a desire to set a new world record.

"At the tower we continually do upgrades to all of our equipment, including elevators, and it was time to do an upgrade to this elevator," he said.

"We took the opportunity to not just upgrade the elevator, but to put in a world-class attraction, if you want to call it that, in the form of a glass-panel floor."

The 553-metre CN Tower lost its tallest structure ranking to the Burj Dubai, a 160-storey hotel, residential and commercial building in the United Arab Emirates. The glitzy $4.1-billion building, which is still under construction, is already 629 metres and counting.

Despite a steady flow of some two million visitors a year, Robinson said the CN Tower is always trying to reinvent itself. Last summer, the tower unveiled a new lighting scheme.

"We started off with six glass-faced elevators. ... We added a glass floor (on an observation deck) about 10 years ago. We added a world-class wine cellar, the world's tallest wine cellar," Robinson said.

"Last year was the pinnacle in getting the tower lit, and now we have a new face in Toronto on the skyline, and this year, the elevator.

"Every year we like to think we add something of value for our visitors."

A second glass-floor elevator is expected to be up and running this summer.