The Space Needle was once the tallest structure west of the Mississippi River, standing at 184 m. The tower is 42 m wide, weighs 8,660 metric tons, and is built to withstand winds of up to 320 km/h and earthquakes of up to 9.0 magnitude, as strong as the 1700 Cascadia earthquake.

The main stairwell has 848 steps from the basement to the top of the observation deck. At approximately 184 m, the Space Needle was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River at the time it was built by Howard S. Wright Construction Co., but is now dwarfed by other structures along the Seattle skyline, among them the Columbia Center, at 295 m. Unlike many other similar structures, such as the CN Tower in Toronto, the Space Needle is not used for broadcasting purposes.

The Space Needle features an observation deck 160 m above ground, providing views of the downtown Seattle skyline, the Olympic and Cascade Mountains, Mount Rainier, Mount Baker, Elliott Bay, and various islands in Puget Sound. Visitors can reach the top of the Space Needle by elevators. It takes 41 seconds to reach the top of the elevators. On April 19, 1999, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Board designated the tower a historic landmark.

A renovation of the top of the Space Needle began in the summer of 2017, to add an all-glass floor to the restaurant, and replace the observation platform windows with floor-to-ceiling glass panels to more closely match the 1962 original concept sketches, as well as upgrades and updates to the internal systems. Called the Century Project, the work was scheduled to finish by June 2018.

The space reopened in August 2018 as the Loupe, an indoor observation deck with a revolving glass floor. It takes 45 minutes for the observation deck to do a full rotation. Two sets of stairs called the Oculus Stairs were added to connect the two new additional levels. They were named after the glass oculus at the base of the stairs where the Space Needle elevators can be seen ascending and descending. A café, wine bar, more restrooms, and an additional accessibility elevator to the top observation deck were also added.

Every year on New Year’s Eve, the Space Needle celebrates with a fireworks show at midnight that is synchronized to music.

According to Wikipedia