Built for the 1958 World Expo in Brussels, Belgium, the original Atomium is 335 feet high; the spheres' diameter is 59 feet; and the elevator system, needless to day, is elaborate.
The project was funded by the metal industry at the height of the Western world's interest in all things atomic, when crystal chemistry and molecular structure were just being widely understood. The public was awed by DNA and terrified by the atom bomb.
A. Waterkeyn, Atomium's creator, gave this statement in documenting the building: "The Atomium symbolizes this age of ours in which men of science have deepened our knowledge of the structure of matter. It is, they say, composed of condensed energy, which if man so desires, can be applied for the greater benefit of a civilization based on technical achievement bent to the service of humanity."
Photo by Webshots user 'berezvai'
