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Towers are tall man-made structures, always (and usually much) taller than they are wide. Towers are generally built to take advantage of their height, and can stand alone or as part of a larger structure. Examples of the various uses of towers include:

★ To save ground-level space: skyscrapers

★ To enhance views: tourist towers, air-traffic Control tower, railroad yard tower, harbor control tower, filming tower, fire lookout tower, camera tower, targeting tower

★ To increase strategic advantage: prison watch tower, defensive walls, siege tower

★ To increase potential energy: storage silo, water tower, drilling tower, ski-jump ramp

★ To enhance communications: radio mast, lighthouse, light tower, minaret, bell tower, clock tower, weather beacon

★ As support: suspension bridge, cable-stayed bridge, pylon, aerial tramway support pillar

★ To access tall or high objects: launch tower, service tower, supply tower, scaffold, tower wagon

★ To access atmospheric conditions aloft: wind turbine, meteorological measurement tower, tower telescope, solar power station

★ To take advantage of the temperature gradient inherent in a height differential: cooling tower, chimney

★ To protect from exposure: BREN Tower

★ For industrial production: shot tower

★ To drop objects: drop tower, bomb tower, diving platform

★ To test height-intensive applications: elevator test tower

★ To improve structural integrity: thyristor tower

★ To mimic towers or provide height for training purposes: fire tower, parachute tower

★ As art: Eiffel Tower, Shukhov Tower, Space Needle

★ For recreation: rock climbing tower

★ As a symbol: Tower of Babel, The Tower (Tarot card), church tower
Skyscrapers are often not classified as towers, although most have the same design and structure of towers. In the United Kingdom, tall domestic buildings are referred to as 'tower blocks'. In the United States, the now-destroyed World Trade Center had the nickname the Twin Towers, a name shared with the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur.
The term "tower" is also sometimes used to refer to firefighting equipment with an extremely tall ladder designed for use in firefighting/rescue operations involving high-rise buildings.

Contents

History

Etymology

See also

History

Probably the oldest tower still standing is the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Pisa, Italy built from 1173 until 1372. The oldest towers in the United States are the Milwaukee City Hall, built in 1895 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the Woolworth Building, completed in 1913 in New York City.

Etymology

Old English ''torr'' is from Latin ''turris'' via Old French ''tor''. The Latin term together with Greek τύρσις was loaned from a pre-Indo-European Mediterranean language, connected with the Illyrian toponym
Βου-δοργίς. With the Lydian toponyms Τύρρα, Τύρσα, it has been connected with the ethnonym Τυρρήνιοι as well as with ''Tusci'' (from ''
★ Turs-ci''), the Greek and Latin names for the Etruscans (Kretschmer Glotta 22, 110ff.)

See also

★ Additionally guyed tower

★ Architectural structure

★ Bell tower

★ Broch

★ Campanile

★ Himalayan Towers

★ Inclined towers

★ Leaning Tower of Pisa

★ List of towers

★ Partially guyed tower

★ Radio masts and towers

★ Tower house

★ Turret

★ Utility pole

★ Watchtower (fortification)

★ World's tallest structures

★ World Trade Center

★ World Federation of Great Towers