Above you rises the tallest freestanding observation tower in the United States, the Stratosphere. The Stratosphere rises 1,149 feet above the desert floor, which means the observation deck sits above the altitude where many small aircraft fly. When it opened in April 1996, it offered something the Strip's mega-resorts could not: perspective. From the top, the entire Las Vegas Valley unfolds in every direction — the Spring Mountains to the west, Lake Mead to the east, the pale ribbon of the Strip running north to south, and the darkness of the desert beyond.
The thrill rides mounted on the tower's peak are deliberately, almost philosophically extreme. Big Shot fires riders 160 feet straight up the tower mast at 45 miles per hour. SkyJump is a controlled descent from 829 feet. Insanity hangs riders over the edge of the tower in seats that spin. X-Scream tilts passengers in an open car over the edge of the platform. All of them share a common design principle: the danger feels real even when it is not, because the ground is so very far below and Las Vegas shimmers in all directions like a fever dream.
The Stratosphere stands at the northern boundary of the Strip's tourist corridor, which has historically made it the poor relation of the mega-resorts — geographically isolated, perpetually struggling financially. It is also, from a purely architectural standpoint, one of the most dramatic silhouettes on the American skyline.