Spirit of ’76: CN Tower is old, but still very sexy

This week in the Airstream I recorded a fellow who was a teen back in ’76 living in an apartment around Eglinton and Weston. He remembered watching from his window the day the big Sikorsky helicopter lifted the final piece of the CN Tower into place, and that “all of Toronto watched” too. I think some of us toddlers watched from Windsor, even. The beacon that would eventually draw us to this city. It’s like our Statue of Liberty, but without the book and blank face and Emma Lazarus poems. Also, it’s more phalic looking than the statue (but I’ve often wondered why she was holding that torch).

That moment will be reenacted on Sunday for all of us to watch, again.

Toronto visitors and residents will be riveted by the sight of a giant Erickson S-64 Aircrane helicopter (72′ wingspan) hovering over the top of the CN Tower at 6:45 pm on Sunday June 25th 2006 for two minutes re-enacting the historical moment the Tower antenna was topped off by the helicopter over 30 years ago making it the World’s Tallest Building. The Erickson S-64 (nee Sikorsky) will land on site at the CN Tower and can be visited during the Celebration on Monday June 26th from 9am-6pm.

Monday has been declared “CN Tower Day” by the mayor too. Don’t listen to frumpy David Frum, the 1970s were Canada’s finest hour(s), and the CN Tower shows how nice brutalism can be when it wanted to be (nice). Three cheers for the Modern Age, and one cheer for very big helicopters.