Atomium facts
The Atomium is a building in Brussels Belgium that is 102m or 335ft and 59ft in diameter. The engineer was Andre Waterkeyn and the architects were Andre and Jean Polak, it was completed in 1958 and was built originally for Expo 58, the 1958 Brussels world fair; it was the only building left after the world fair. It was built as a replica of a single iron crystal blown up 165 billion times. It is made up of 9 stainless Steel clad spheres; each of them is 18 meters in diameter which is the size of a large apartment. The Atomium was closed in 2004 because they were getting the spheres restored back to their original shine and luster but it was reopened to the public in 2006. Each sphere has a main a main purpose. The main purpose of the top sphere is a restaurant which has panoramic views which is the only sphere reachable by an elevator at the bottom of the structure. The main purpose of the middle sphere is the snack area; the bottom sphere is where the permanent exhibition is. This sphere is called the events area, another is called kids world. Then there is the temporary exhibition, the 3 spheres left have no main purpose. All of these spheres are connected by tubes which are escalators or elevators inside. Some people call it the Belgium monument. It is the most visited tourist attraction in Brussels. Its coordinates are 50*53’41”N4*20’28”E. It is north of the city but center in Heysel. To get there you can take the last stop on line 6 of the metro, from there it is a short walk down the street. The basic entrance price is under 6 free, 6-11 2 euro’s and adults 9 euro’s. Did you know that the Atomium was on the 2 dollar euro in 2006?