Happy 40th Anniversay CN Tower!

Before the antenna could be lifted, the giant crane used for four years of round-the-clock service to build the Tower would have to be dismantled and brought down.

To do all this moving, "Olga" - a 10 ton Sikorsky helicopter used primarily for industrial lifting - was flown to Toronto.

And on her first trip, tragedy almost struck.

As Olga was removing the first piece of the boom, the crane lurched, twisting and seizing the supporting bolts.

Now hovering about 1500 feet up, Olga was basically attached to the Tower, with 50 minutes of fuel (the job was supposed to take only 12 minutes). The crane couldn't just be released, either. The operator was still inside.

Steel workers scrambled up and burned off the bolts, finally releasing the crane from the Tower.

Olga landed with about 14 minutes of fuel left.

Larry Porter was one of 1,537 workers who toiled on the tower around the clock, five days a week, for an hourly wage of $8 if they worked below 1,000 feet (305 metres). They got danger pay plus an additional $1 per 200-300 feet (60-90 metres) if they worked above that height.

“That day, I think it was about an 80-mile-an-hour (130 km/h) wind or something like that,” Porter said.

Now we need to hear the story of the building of the tallest building on earth.
Just about 2 times this height. Yikes.

Bot alert!