Next time you're on Public Square, look up and say, "Happy 75th" to the architectural grande dame of Cleveland, the Terminal Tower. To observe this milestone in the building's history, local authors James A. Toman and Daniel J. Cook have penned "Cleveland's Towering Treasure: A Landmark Turns 75" (Cleveland Landmarks Press Inc.; softcover, $18.50). Toman and Cook resurrect some fascinating facts:
The Terminal Tower
• is 708 feet tall, not counting the 65-foot flagpole above it.
• is 52 stories high.
• has 2,200 windows.
• cost $179 million dollars to build.
• would cost nearly $1.84 billion to build today.
• was completed in 1927 and dedicated in 1930.
• was America's second-tallest building in 1927.
• was dwarfed at the time only by New York City's 792-foot-tall Woolworth Building.
• had an average of 80 passenger trains a day using its station in the 1930s.
• has only the Rapid today.
• was the target of a bombing attempt in 1935, when a tenant discovered a homemade explosive made with six sticks of dynamite. Luckily, the fuse fizzled. But the perpetrator got away.
For more information about the book, call (216) 658-4144 or visit www.clevelandbook.com.
