The New Tower of London

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Below I commend to your attention “London’s answer to the Eiffel tower,” scheduled for completion prior to the 2012 Olympic Games. “The structure will officially be called the ArcelorMittal Orbit, after steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, the richest man in Europe, who is funding it.” Naturally, Boris Johnson is deeply involved too. Its designer says: “There is a kind of medieval sense to it of reaching up to the sky, building the impossible. A procession, if you like. It’s a long winding spiral: a folly that aspires to go even above the clouds and has something mythic about it.” Though at only 400 feet, it’s not clear which clouds it will go above.

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