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Built:
1957
Type: Monument
Location: Boulevard du Centenaire
City: Brussels
State: Brussels-Capital Region
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T
his is exactly what Brussels needed -- a unifying symbol of its presence in the world community. The Atomium is more than just an oversized abstract sculpture. For a city that sees itself as Paris 2.0, this is Brussels' Eiffel Tower. Something large, geometric, and symbolic. And like the Eiffel Tower this, too, is a relic from a past World's Fair. The Atomium is an iron molecule magnified 165,000,000,000 times and turned into a huge building. Inside there are restaurants, shops, museums and an observation deck. Each of its nine spheres are sixty feet across. The connecting tubes are 10-feet wide, and the overall height of the atom is 335 feet. Getting from one pod to another is a simple process of playing connect the dots by climbing or descending staircases through the tubes.
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