How the CN Tower was Built | Engineering & Construction 

Wow, you deserve allot more subscribers. Easily one of the best Engineering channels out there.

@@matthewq4b as someone who does structural steel design and load calculations daily, they're primarily metric. Every engineer and designer in my office uses metric for calculations, even when working on jobs where final drawings are imperial.

@@matthewq4b Our design handbooks and documents provide section sizes, properties, and dimensions in metric, so there is no conversion required for us as practitioners. Properties (such as ultimate strength, yield strength, modulus of elasticity, shear modulus, and coefficient of expansion) are given as minimum specs per CSA standards, and are not converted from imperial (although they are close to the minimums specified per ASTM standards). Steel sections are metric equivalents to imperial sections, but all the dimensions and geometric properties are provided in metric for us. All calculations are then performed in metric from start to finish. It does not introduce extra work to practitioners; we actually save work from our handbooks being metric, as all properties are given in metric in the first place. It would actually require more work and conversion for practitioners to work in imperial in Canada in current day. We often use metric drawing sets in Canada, but it depends on the architect/project. Most engineers tend to prefer metric sets, although there are definitely some who prefer imperial, and I don't claim to speak for all Canadian designers by any means. We convert nothing until MAYBE the final step, and that only if we are producing imperial drawings. There are still some engineers who use imperial in Canada, but they are much less common than those using metric. This isn't a commentary on whether one system is "better", just providing the context of a Canadian designer. What error are you talking about at Albian Sands?

@@matthewq4b... You are full of yourself! This is a private production on RU-vid. It's a metric world in spite of certain national holdouts. Notwithstanding what you deem to be appropriate practice, maybe you should make your own videos and let others choose specification formats as they wish. Giving instructions to a producer is just rude and obnoxious! Perhaps you could instruct Donald Trump in correct deportment instead. I'm sure he would welcome your comments.

​@@matthewq4b Hmm, you make a compelling case to switch my entire design methodology. I'll switch to imperial then so that I can design imperial properly instead of not designing metric (apparently). I'm sure the knowledge of that will make up for less sense of scale in my designs and lost productivity. Have a good night, and good luck with your clients who demand specific unit systems!

I'm canadian. Talked to a 70 year old who helped build it. He said they made so many mistakes they had to sign a document to never disclose it. Yet he said the building is super safe. Most of the building original design was scratched. All blue print were produced at the end or ending of the build.

All on paper too, hand drawn blueprints type thing. Wow

I went to T.O in 2016 and it still looks new-and one heckuva thing to take a picture of!

Whew!.....one less thing to worry about...........

The engineers truly earned their paycheck back then. Nowadays with the correct software (or dare I say app) anyone can engineer a building. Expect for me, that doesn't sound very interesting. Lol

My Grandmother was working in one of the TD Towers at the time and she told me how amazing it was to watch Olga at work. Everyone stopped when she was there and stared out the windows. I wished I could have seen it.

My dad had to go to a business meeting in toronto the day the last piece of the antenna was lifted in to place. We lived about 40 km north of the city at the time, so my parents took us kids out of school for the day so we could come to toronto with him and watch Olga do her work. It was one of the most exciting things imaginable.

@@6193derek At the end of construction the last piece that was placed on the top was put on display in the park beside the tower. People were invited to write their name on the top piece. I figured out which was the top of the last piece and put my name there. so my name is at the top forever :))

that's really cool

Awesome, Toronto born and raised

Back when RU-vid didn't favor quick garbage uploads, but content filled works.

This is what Discovery and Quest tv and all the rest used to aspire to be now they are just purveyors of false overly dramatic over edited moments. I thoroughly enjoyed the last 30 minutes and not once did I feel like I wanted to find something else to watch. Thank you AOE can't wait for your next upload it won't be soon enough.

This is a video I will cherish for a very long time.

Jake Paul doesnt and he makes 1000X more then this guy lol

@@jokers7890 Troll

what happened to canadian architecture and engineering. They can't even fix up union station after 5 years, still a total mess. All new buildings are cheap glass square boxes. Don't understand why it went so downhill. Clearly peaked in 1976

@@TheRealRorbo Baha! So true

@@TheRealRorbo Stupid architects and their shitty "modern" design philosophies. Edmonton used to have a municipal airport which limited the building height, but since they closed it they ended up building a tall lame ass glass square building Stantec Tower.

@@TheRealRorbo it's not the architect's fault. blame the mayor constantly giving his friends jobs

​@@ericcartmann Seems like a scapegoat on your part. Money has gotten in the way. Prices for everything are inflated. Governments and politicians, developers and construction companies are also involved in these projects. Creativity can be endless, but laws and money stand in the way of people who don't care to work beyond these obstacles.

Another Civil Engineer here, I second that!!

These projects are done by a draftsman, not by a civilin train engineer.

@@rustystove8410 draftsmen dont design, they draft the designs Civil Engineers and Civil Designers come up with... a Civil Engineer has nothing to do with trains unless you are talking about designing the railroad itself

Rusty Stove i am in my last semester of civil engineering now, everything talked about in this video is what i study.

Liam: Nice! Do you use ANSYS for normal modes or get a formula from Roarks equations for stresses?

How much was the ticket back then to go up?

hrddrvto The CN Tower Is an Engineering marvellous. How they build it during the 1970’s still amazes me. I studied Mechanical engineering by the way.

I was right behind you with my mom in the line .

@@EdwardsR0se Gosh I think it was like $12 or $15 maybe? I honestly can't remember but I know it was not as much as it is now. But back then it was basic. Now there is better viewing, glass floor, better restaurant.

You should feel proud, it’s something special, isn’t it. 🇬🇧

Triple P ayee ✊🇨🇦

At this time, nobody realized that the Cn tower was the tallest tower of the World. They tought canada was empty and there is only igloo and everyone tought it was the World Trade Center Twins tower.

But then we go back to reality and see how this country runs now and feel ashamed again lol

Me two! RCMP criminal inveatigation into the new Winnipeg Police staion, something like 80 million more than the bid price and nobody is going to prison for fraud. Viva la engineering...LOL!

Triple P triple h

qualifications for iron workers

some say it's hardened chromium steel

@@cameranmanner4701 Roger that, man.

Same as the Empire State Building and Golden Gate Bridge iron workers.

Right? I didn't see a single harness.

I found, when I visited Toronto, that the CN Tower is visible from everywhere...but as you get up close you can't get into it! Just a maze of crosswalks and blind alleys at the base of it. Took half an hour walking around to find the entrance. And I remember kids jumping on the glass floor as hard as they could.

getting worse everyday dont kid yourself. as a tourist your only seeing the nice parts

@@bishop198666 lol good point.

"It's like New York City, except without all the stuff"

Since Trudeau got into power Toronto has turned into a 3rd world country, mass illegal immigration, crime and gangs, daily shooting, its a mess now

It's like New York without any of the stuff that makes New York interesting. So, in reality, it is a big bland ocean of nothingness.

At the end of construction the last piece that was placed on the top was put on display in the park beside the tower. People were invited to write their name on the top piece. I figured out which was the top of the last piece and put my name there. so my name is at the top forever :))

@@yessure5291 Hopefully you used permanent marker

@@enotsnavdier6867 I took a screwdriver and scratched it into the paint ; )

me too

@@yessure5291 unfortunately nothing lasts forever

@Joe Kinchicken The tower has brought billions of dollars in revenue from tourists. There's a lot you can critize from that generation but the construction of the CN tower isn't one of them.

@Joe Kinchicken people like you are so annoying, you prefer to live in a world where there is nothing to do for fun?

I have a fear of heights going up to the top. Its too high and Im nervous that their could be a earth tremor. It has happened before. and I don,t want to be that high when it does.

@@normanbloom pssssT." Here...Smoke this!"

Kernub there is a comparison chart on the wall by the glass floor where it tells you how much weight they glass can hold. And since we are in Canada one example is Moose.

@@carloscarvalho5056 I'm assuming they went the standard 8 year old bull moose. So about 1400 pounds each, 49000 pounds of weight. Or 22226.026 kilos. For glass, that's very very impressive. Many bridges can't even hold that much weight.

Moose = Canadian Metric

@Joe Kinchicken Hmmm... how does commercialism equate to communism?

Stay up there long enough to gaze out in sunshine at first, then at all the lights after sunset. I suppose this takes around three hours, meaning you might want to sit down to eat, but it's worth it to take in two shows, so to speak.

Same here! Had a great view of it from my apartment at Queen and Niagara. As a kid in the 80' s you could easily see it from nearly anywhere. Not so easy now !

@Joe Kinchicken They broadcast radio/TV from the world trade center towers (now from the empire state building and One Trade Center tower(which is almost as tall as the CN tower at 1776')) in New York and from Willis Tower in Chicago so they most certainly are needed.

I know people who had lived in Niagara Falls, Ontario for years but had never been to the actual falls. Go figure.

I agree!

1st time I seen it was at the CNE just after it was done. Lived at Queen and Niagara for 8 years so had a perfect view of it. Seen it yesterday from not far from where I live in Brampton. It also looks good from Hamilton on the right day! Times I have been up it? Once!

At the end of construction the last piece that was placed on the top was put on display in the park beside the tower. People were invited to write their name on the top piece. I figured out which was the top of the last piece and put my name there. so my name is at the top forever :))

My dad's cousin, David Korhonen, was Larry's co-pilot

And dont forget me I did a little hand paint since I didn't know how to write my name ,and some kids also .the tube structure was picked up and put on top of c.n tower.

Very cool! Sounds like physics class!

I meant engineering class*

Man... there's classes for this stuff? You guys weren't trained by trail and error? :/ I suppose... it's better for explaining on paper I guess.. I mean I just read and put together what you call; but often your wrong and I have to replace steel and consult the engineer with errors; like not realizing boxes/pipe/another trade is feeding through; simple shit that can be fixed with logic and quick maths. I find it better to stress test off site and figure out steel/rebar stress on your own. I mean... I can bend a 15m 350 grade steel with my bare hands; but when it's in a curb of 100m of concrete; I can't.

Nobody cares about the dude who puts it together tho... It's why Im broke and living with parents..

Thank you! I'm a big fan of Wendover Productions and I'll have to check out New Mind too!

"Lemmino" is also a great channel. You should try watching a vid

He doesn't make parodies. But he makes high quality documentaries

Thank you so much!

But we've been using it for decades now.

The engineering that went into the CN tower is just amazing!

By the way, we're from Michigan. About halfway between Detroit/Windsor and Sarina/Port Huron.

Do balls make you have nerves of steel ?

@@jillsmcfarland2001 Steel balls do

Mom's spaghetti

Yup I live a two hour drive away, and listen to 102.1 FM all the time (Toronto station)

You're so right, I can listen to 94.9 over 1.5 hours away in my 2003 Saturn!

I listen to q107 on the Toronto side of Woodstock

A lot of stations broadcast from antennas on the south side of Lake Ontario on top of the escarpment, Somewhere around Grimsby.

Q 107👍

Great story

What band did you see?

@@eddieisgreat5150 Todd Rungrend.

@@lotanerve Not sure who that is, but checked on youtube and the song hello you again came up and i know that song.great song. Have a great day

At the end of construction the last piece that was placed on the top was put on display in the park beside the tower. People were invited to write their name on the top piece. I figured out which was the top of the last piece and put my name there. so my name is at the top forever :))

I saw this past summer they “re-polished” the whole plastic radome. It got quite grimy after all these years and is looking like new again. Quite the task.

My dad is working on “the one” in Toronto and it’s big as shit like idk how somebody can do it

Come to Toronto and see the tower. If you get nervous don't worry we have a brewery across the street for some liquid courage. 🍺😁

I work as a tour guide here in Toronto (although not for the CN Tower itself, but it is one of my favourite things to talk about) and let me tell you - if we could tell you everything about the tower, we probably would. We're limited not just by time, but also by guest interest. Most visitors really aren't going to be interested in hearing a lot about the history and construction. That being said, I do sneak in a few sentances about the railway lands and CN whenever I get the opportunity to - it's a fascinating story. I do definitley get some watered-down tourist attraction vibes from the tower now, though, which is why I love to admire it from elsewhere in the city.

Doesn't CN stand for Canadian National?

@@windmillwilly Until 1995, yes. It was at that point CN was privatised and all non-essential assets to the railway were sold off, including the CN Tower. It's now owned by the Canada Lands Company (part of the Canadian government) and they can't use the "Canadian National" trademark unfortunately.

Yup I live a two hour drive away, and listen to 102.1 FM all the time (Toronto station)

@sploofmonkey That's what the Illuminati want you to think so they can hide the real mind control machine that is making you think the CN tower in the true mind control machine.

The TV and radio stations that broadcast from the CN Tower also have auxiliary broadcast antennae located around the city, you're not necessarily receiving the signal from the CN Tower from 150 miles away. The auxiliary antennae also sometimes take over primary broadcast duty, for instance when maintenance workers need to enter the mast of the Tower the transmitters will be placed into a low power state or shut off (usually done at night).

@sploofmonkey That's what they want you to think

@sploofmonkey "lightning never strikes the same place twice" doesn't make sense, electricity looks for the shortest path to ground, and the CN Tower is basically a 1500' tall ground electrode

The legend Paul Mitchell.

Just like your mom? lol

Same!

Yup in Canada all of our metrics are based on how much wild life we can fit on things.

I would have used ducks, personally 🦆

@@ArtofEngineering have you any idea how many ducks 35 moose worth is? even just 1 moose... That's a lot of ducks they wouldn't even fit in the CN tower! impossible and here I thought you were smart and knew your stuff... Feathers everywhere, too. Don't forget all those damn liberal do gooders in Canada harassing you about your fowl treatment. Moose are stubborn but its a lot easier to take care of 35 moose and get them all up the tower. Compared to thousands of ducks quacking and shitting and getting feathers everywhere... No man, moose are the right tool for this job.

I'm sure there is a "Standard Moose", probably at some European university...

@@voidremoved Problem with moose metric: They don't fit in the elevators. I do however agree, ducks would be a stupid choice. Clearly geese are the superior method of weight measurement here, despite their ill temperment.

My fun at 5 and 10 as a kid was the train derailment. We use to play in the junk yard for heavy equipment where the Go Station is now. Was down there yesterday

350 mil usd

@@coroso136 Huh, I didnt remember them specifically saying US dollars. Also that would be weird that the Canadian National tower in Canada would be evaluated in US dollars.

@@AlexFlockhart CAD is worth less than USD. Plus, a lot of things are evaluated in USD so its not too surprising or weird.