vidTO: CN Tower's Glass Floor Elevator Ride

Yesterday morning I got a first look at the CN Tower's new glass-floor elevators that I wrote about last week. The novelty floor is being dubbed as "North America's first" and feature two strips of glass giving you a view of the elevator shaft below your feet rushing away.

Watch the video above as I talk to CN Tower's CEO Jack Robinson about the new floors in the elevator and take a ride up and down myself. Keep reading for some of my impressions.

Some cool technology is at work in the glass being used, allowing the operator to turn the glass completely opaque at the flip of a switch upon rider request using an electrical current.

The National Post weren't impressed, summing up the experience pretty well, "The glass floor is actually two door-mat-sized panels. Made of load-bearing glass and a steel frame, they are five centimetres thick and hardly as terrifying as the elevator window."

They also took note of CN Tower CEO Jack Robinson's defensive reaction when asked by another reporter about if the new floors were the answer to the Burj Dubai taking the 'tallest' crown from our humble tower.

Although it's a cool feature, It's a bit of a novelty to me that wouldn't necessarily bring me back to the tower in the near future.

I didn't get anything close to the vertigo I get standing anywhere near the observation deck's glass floor, and it was more exciting to just keep your eyes straight ahead for the view out the existing windows. The panels themselves are quite small.

I think it has a lot to do with being able to see the city streets, the Skydome and everything else below up on the observation deck. Looking down through the elevators, all you get is an obstructed view of the concrete shaft of the tower - hardly a thrill, but maybe fun for kids.