City Center
Toronto`s City Hall
The two towers, rising 20 and 27 storeys, are located in the
city center in
Nathan Phillips Square. A reflecting pool under the arches is used as
an
ice-skating rink in the winter.
Toronto is the center of most populous area in Canada and the
capital of
province of Ontario. Toronto is located on the north shore of Lake
Ontario in
Canada. The region is known as the “Golden
Horseshoe” and is rich in
agriculture and industry. It is well placed to trade with all of
Canada, the
United States, and the world.
Known in the past by such names as “Little
York” , “Hogtown” , and “The
City
You Love to Hate” , Toronto has been portrayed in more
flattering terms. The
National Geographic declared Toronto “worldly, wealthy,
personable, and
relatively problem free” . Art Gallery called the city
“possibly the most
civilized metropolis in the Western Hemisphere” .
Shoppers can browse through shops on Queen Street West, admire
the best of
designer fashions in the renovated district of Yorkville, or visit
Eaton
Center, a four - level $25-millions retail complex. For people watching
and
plenty of culinary delights, there's Kensington Market, which features
fresh
produce, fish, and plenty of friendly conversation.
The city was designed and renovated to make the most of its
settings on the
store of Lake Ontario. The best view is from the CN Tower, a 553-metre
spire
that is considered the world's tallest free-standing structure. Much of
the
appeal of Toronto lies in its sense of history, which dates back to
1749 when
French fur traders established a ford on the site.
Toronto boats a vast multicultural mix, with large groups of
Italians,
Germans, Portuguese, Ukrainians, Asians, and West Indians. Toronto is a
cultural center, with the ultra - modern O'Keefe Center, which is home
to the
Canadian Opera Company and the National Ballet of Canada; the Art
Gallery of
Ontario, with more than 15,000 works - from Old Masters to contemporary
art -
in its permanent collection; and the Royal Ontario Museum with its vast
array
of art and artefacts from cultures the world over. Business and finance
are
another important element of the city, and Toronto's skyline is
dominated by
the high - rise towers of financial institutions. Among the most famous
is the
Royal Bank Tower with gold-embedded window panels.
The CN Tower
You can see the CN Tower on the first page of the paper.
The CN Tower is a key element in Canada’s
telecommunications network,
provides space for microwave transmission of voice, telex, computer
data,
facsimile, television, and radio.
At 553.33 meters the CN Tower is considered the world's
tallest
free-standing structure. Construction took 40 months, cost $57
millions,
employed 1573 workers, and was completed in June 1976. A slender column
resembling a giant needle, it weight 132080 metric tons - the
equivalent of
23214 large elephants.
Visitors can step inside one of four glass-faced elevators and
be whisked to
the Skypod Observation level in under a minute. There are three
observation
decks, at 342,346, and 447 meters aboveground, the world's highest
public
observation gallery. Each of these offers panoramic views of Toronto,
the
Toronto Islands, and, on a clear day, Niagara Falls. Spectacular views
are also
to be had from Top Of Toronto, a restaurant at the 350-metre level that
makes A
full revolution once every 72 minutes. Those who prefer to dine on the
ground
level can enjoy a snack in the family - style restaurant.
The CN Tower has the longest metal staircase in the world
(2570 steps) ,
which is made available to the public each year for a charity stair
climb. Dar
Robinson has jumped from the top of the tower twice - once with a
parachute for
the filming of the movie “Highpoint” (1979) and
once using a wire cable for the
TV show "That's Incredible". On the tower's tenth anniversary,
"Spider Man" Goodwin completed two free - style climbs outside the
glass elevator-shaft window.
Sky Dome
Sky Dome is the world's greatest entertainment center. It's a
host to wide
variety of sporting spectaculars, concerts, family shows and consumers
shows.
How big is Toronto's Sky Dome? Well, you could put eight
Boeing 747s on the
playing field. Or all of Eaton Center. Or a 32-home subdivision. Or the
Roman
Coliseum. Even with the retractable roof closed, a 31-storey buildings
could
fit inside the structure.
The $500-millions buildings opened on June 3,1989, after 32
months of construction.
On that day, inclement weather
forced the developers to prove that the panelled roof could be closed
in 20
minutes. The roof runs on a series of steel track and bogies, weighs
11000 tons
and is made up of steel tresses covered by steel cladding.
The eight-acre stadium offers sports fans five levels of
seating and the
world's largest video replay screen. More than 50000 people at a time
can watch
a football or a baseball game, and there is also a 350-room hotel built
into
the north end of building, with 70 rooms offering a view of the playing
field.
But the building is much more than a place to watch sporting
events under an
open roof. There are 23 fast-food stands, 48 beverage outlets, a
430-seat
restaurant for quick-service dining, a 300-foot-long bar overlooking
the field,
the largest McDonnell’s in North America, the Hard Rock Cafe,
and a 120-seat
movie theater where tours of the building begin.
The Royal Ontario Museum
The Royal Ontario Museum is Canada's Largest Public Museum,
made grander by
a recent $55 millions renovation and expansion project. Opened in 1914
the
Museum today attracts more than one million visitors a year. Among its
impressive holdings, which number more than six million objects and
specimens,
are a Roman gallery, housing the country's most extensive collection of
antiquities;
the famous dinosaur gallery, with a mastodon, stegosaurus, and other
prehistoric creatures in jungle settings; a textile collection with
costumes
and richly patterned fabrics; the Chinese collection, with 800 pieces
displayed
in traditional room settings and special gallery areas. Of particular
note are
the giant stone camels and guardian figures of the Ming Tomb, the only
Chinese
tomb in the Western world. There are also galleries devoted to
artefacts of
Ontario and Canada.
Next door is the McLaughlin Planetarium where the Theater of
the Stars uses
85 slide and video projectors to create planets, exploding stars, and
other
galactic phenomena.
The Sigmund Samuel Building, a few blocks south of the main
Museum building,
focuses on Canada's rich cultural heritage with displays of antique
toys,
cooking utensils, oil paintings, pottery and sculpture. The George R.
Gardener
Museum of Ceramic Art, the only museum specializing in ceramic in North
America.
Niagara Falls
Every year more than 12 million people come to Ontario to see
the natural
phenomenon knows as Niagara Falls. Many are just married, although no
one is
quite sure how that tradition got started. They come to see the
combined
cascading power of the 54-metre Canadian Falls - knows as Horseshoe
Falls - and
the American Falls, which soars to 56 meters.
There are a variety of ways to view the spectacle: four boats
enter the
Horseshoe Basin and pass directly in front of cataracts, three tunnels
allow
visitors to walk behind the Falls. To view the sights from above, you
can make
a 10-minute helicopter ride, rise to the top of the Skypod Tower
observation
deck via the external glass - fronted elevators, or visit the viewing
platform
at the Minolta Tower and Marine Aquarium.
If the real thing isn't enough, there's always IMAX Theater's
Niagara:
Miracles, Myths and Magic, shown on a big screen in the village of
Niagara
Falls.
The University of Toronto
You can receive a higher education in the University of
Toronto. There are
faculties of arts, science, music, architecture, medicine, dentistry,
nursing,
law, engineering, forestry, and library science. Among the universities
faculties are the Center for Russian and East European Studies and the
Institute for Aerospace Studies.
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