Fawlty Towers

So on my world tour, one of the places i absolutely had to visit was Seattle! Seattle is one of the largest cities in the pacific northwest. It was named after chief Sealth (Seattle) of the Duwamish and Suquamish native tribes.

What really got me interested in this musical city is the Space Needle. It is stationed right in between the Pacific Science Center, and the EMP. The Space Needle was built in 1962 for the world fair. 20,000 people a day used the elevators, and had over 2.3 million visitors during the world fair. The Space Needle is 605 ft. high at its highest point, and 138 ft wide at its widest point. This massive building was built to withstand 200 mph winds, and 9.0 earthquakes. How is that, I wonder...

The design of the Space Needle was a compromise between Edward E. Carlson, and John Graham Jr. Edward Carlson's idea was a giant balloon tethered to the ground, while John's Idea was a flying Saucer.

Seattle is a major earthquake zone due to its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire. The Pacific Ring of Fire (or sometimes just the ring of fire) is an area where large numbers of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur. It is associated with a nearly continuous series of oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, and volcanic belts. The Ring of Fire has 452 volcanoes, and is home to 75% of the worlds active dormant volcanoes. 80% of the worlds largest earthquakes occur here.

The Ring of Fire is a direct result of plate tectonics. The eastern ring of the belt is the result of the Nazca plate, and the Cocos plate being subducted (Subduction is where ocean plates collide with either ocean plates, or continental plates. If its oceanic plates colliding with oceanic plates, one of them moves under the other because they are both so dense. If oceanic plates are colliding with continental plates, the oceanic plate will sink underneath because it is much denser than the continental plate.) beneath the westward moving South American plate.

In the western United States (The area of Western Washington, Western Oregon, and part of Northern Western California) lies the Cascade Volcanic Arc. It is home to 20 major volcanoes, and 4,000 volcanic arcs. That is because when a plate is subducted beneath ours, it keeps stretching down for miles, until it reaches a hot spot, and begins to melt. Then it will continue stretching down and melting until a pocket opens up on the surface for an outlet for it to all come spewing out.

Now that you have some of the background information, we'll go back to the Space Needle.

The earthquake stability was ensured when a hole was dug 30 ft deep, and 120 ft across, and 467 concrete trucks were used to fill it in one day. The foundation of the Space Needle weighs almost 6,000 tons, with 250 tons of reinforcing steel in the base. With the concrete base weighing as much as the structure above ground, the Space Needle's center of balance was just 5 ft above ground level. The structure is bolted to the ground with 72 bolts, each 30 ft long.

So hey, even with a 9.0 earthquake, all you may notice is water spilling out of your glass. Even though this monstrosity stand at 605 tall, it is still safe to go dine at the Sky City Restaurant standing at the top of this luxurious sky scraper. I prefer to go at night, so i can see the entire city lit up.

Sky City Restaurant

Ooooh! Even some of the food is space themed! If you ever go there, I would definitely recommend the Lunar Orbiter. There's no way you can disagree with Vanilla Ice cream and Chocolate sauce!
...
unless your lactose intolerant...

~Momo