Tower

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Image:Kostroma watchtower.jpg Image:Juche Tower.jpg

For other uses, see Tower (disambiguation).

A tower is a tall man-made structure, always taller than it is wide, and usually much higher. 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, cooling tower, chimney
To enhance views: tourist towers, air-traffic control tower, railroad yard tower, harbor control tower, filming tower
To increase strategic advantage: prison watch tower, defensive walls, siege tower, fire lookout tower, camera 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
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 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: Gettysburg National Tower, Eiffel Tower
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.

[edit] 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 Τυρσήνοί as well as with Tusci (from *Turs-ci), the Greek and Latin names for the Etruscans (Kretschmer Glotta 22, 110ff.)

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.