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| location = 400 Broad Street Seattle, Washington, United States | coordinates = | status = Complete | start_date = April 17, 1961 | completion_date = December 8, 1961 | opening = April 21, 1962 | building_type = Observation tower | antenna_spire = | top_floor = | floor_count = 6 | elevator_count = 3 | cost = | floor_area = | architect = John Graham & Company | structural_engineer= John K. Minasian Victor Steinbrueck | main_contractor = Howard S. Wright Construction Co | developer = | owner = Space Needle Corporation | management = | references = }} The Space Needle is an observation tower in Seattle, Washington, a landmark of the Pacific Northwest, and an icon of Seattle. It was built in the Seattle Center for the 1962 World's Fair, which drew over 2.3 million visitors, when nearly 20,000 people a day used its elevators. Once the tallest structure west of the Mississippi River, it is high, wide, and weighs 9,550 tons. It is built to withstand winds of up to and earthquakes of up to 9.1 magnitude,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Space Needle )〕 as strong as the 1700 Cascadia earthquake. It also has 25 lightning rods. It has an observation deck at and the rotating SkyCity restaurant at .〔 The downtown Seattle skyline, as well as the Olympic and Cascade Mountains, Mount Rainier, Mount Baker, Elliott Bay and surrounding islands can be viewed from the top of the Needle. Photographs of the Seattle skyline often show the Space Needle prominently, above skyscrapers and Mount Rainier. Visitors can reach the top of the Space Needle by elevators that travel at . The trip takes 41 seconds. On windy days, the elevators slow to . On April 19, 1999, the city's Landmarks Preservation Board designated it a historic landmark.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】 publisher = HistoryLink.org )〕 ==Architecture== The architecture of the Space Needle is the result of a compromise between the designs of two men, Edward E. Carlson and John Graham, Jr. The two leading ideas for the World Fair involved businessman Edward E. Carlson's sketch of a giant balloon tethered to the ground (see the gently sloping base) and architect John Graham's concept of a flying saucer (see the halo that houses the restaurant and observation deck).〔 Victor Steinbrueck introduced the hourglass profile of the tower.〔Bill Speidel, ''Through the Eye of the Needle'', Seattle: Nettle Creek, ISBN 0914890042. p. 6–7. , "The final design… was either John Graham's… or Victor Steinbrueck's, who took the trouble of calling me from his deathbed to make sure I didn't credit Graham."〕 The Space Needle was built to withstand wind speeds of 200 mph (322 km/h), double the requirements in the building code of 1962. An earthquake registering 6.8 on the Richter Scale jolted the Needle enough in 2001 for water to slosh out of the toilets in the restrooms. The Space Needle will not sustain serious structural damage during earthquakes of magnitudes below 9. Also made to withstand Category 5 hurricane-force winds, the Space Needle sways only 1 inch per 10 mph (16 mm per 10 km/h) of wind speed. For decades, the "hovering disk" of the Space Needle was home to two restaurants above the ground: the Space Needle Restaurant, which was originally named Eye of the Needle, and Emerald Suite. These were closed in 2000 to make way for SkyCity, a larger restaurant that features Pacific Northwest cuisine. It rotates 360 degrees in exactly forty-seven minutes.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 publisher = Via Magazine )〕 In 1993, the elevators were replaced with new computerized versions. The new elevators descend at a rate of . On December 31, 1999 (New Year's Eve), a powerful beam of light was unveiled for the first time. Called the Legacy Light or Skybeam, it is powered by lamps that total 85 million candela shining skyward from the top of the Space Needle to honor national holidays and special occasions in Seattle. The concept of this beam was derived from the official 1962 World's Fair poster, which depicted such a light source although none was incorporated into the original design. It is somewhat controversial because of the light pollution it creates.〔"Big beam for Space Needle is protested", ''Seattle Times'', 30 November 1999.〕 Originally planned to be turned on 75 nights per year, it has generally been used fewer than a dozen times per year. It did remain lit for eleven days in a row from September 11, 2001, to September 22, 2001, in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks. A 1962 "Seattle World's Fair" poster () showed a grand spiral entryway leading to the elevator that was ultimately omitted from final building plans.〔http://durangonorthwest.blogspot.com/2010/07/seattle-space-needle.html〕 The stairway was eventually added as part of the Pavilion and Spacebase remodel in June 2000. The main stairwell has 848 steps from the basement to the top of the observation deck.〔 At approximately , the Space Needle was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River at the time it was built by Howard S. Wright Construction Co., but is now dwarfed by other structures along the Seattle skyline, among them the Columbia Center, at .〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Columbia Center )〕 Unlike many other similar structures, such as the CN Tower in Toronto, the Space Needle is not used for broadcasting purposes. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Space Needle」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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