Jurassic Skyline
observation tower in Dorset, England
The Jurassic Skyline tower (known until mid-2015 as the Weymouth Sea Life Tower) was an observation tower on Weymouth Pier in Weymouth, Dorset, England. It was situated next to Weymouth Beach and the Weymouth Pavilion, where it overlooked Weymouth town, the beach, the Pavilion, the Old Harbour, Nothe Gardens, the Nothe Fort, and Portland Harbour. It opened on 22 June 2012.
The tower stood 53 metres (174 feet) high. The clear-fronted passenger gondola could turn a full 360 degrees as it rose during operation, and accommodated 69 passengers at a time. Each tower session lasted approximately 15 minutes. A total of 1,100 tons of concrete was used during building; the tower itself weighed 140 tons. It offered views of the English Channel and the surrounding countryside; on a clear day, views at the highest point were said to extend down the Dorset coast to Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door.
The tower received national attention in September 2017 after the gondola became stuck and could not descend; 13 people were winched off by helicopter as the weather prevented other modes of safe rescue.
In August 2019, the tower was announced to be permanently closed and was subsequently removed.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jurassic Skyline” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.