We arrive at the last ground before we make 180 turn and start heading back towards the famous Las Vegas Sign. This ground has been
Bob Stupak’s playground for nearly 25 years. On the 31st of March 1974 Stupak opens the
"World Famous Historic Gambling Museum". That place burnt down and Bob Stupak's
Vegas World replaced it, opening in 1979.
Despite its terrible location,
Vegas World thrived thanks to Stupak's talent at promoting it and bringing in new and original gambling rules. At its peak,
Vegas World made $100 million a year in gambling revenues.
But Bob Stupak had loftier plans for the area after seeing the Sydney Tower on a trip he took to Australia in the late 1980's. The
Stratosphere Tower began construction in 1992 next to Vegas World
Vegas World closed on the 1st of February 1995, while the
Stratosphere Tower-Hotel and Casino, Restaurant-Bar and Wedding Chapel opened on the 30th of April 1996. It becomes the tallest free standing observation tower in the U.S. and the tallest structure west of the Mississippi River when it opens. It would have been finished earlier, but the unfinished tower caught fire early Sunday morning on the 29th of August in 1993, burning for 3 hours before it was put out.
Because of financial problems, the
Stratosphere filed for bankruptcy not long after opening and construction on the 2nd tower was halted with just a few of the planned stories completed.
Carl Icahn gained control in 1997 and
Bob Stupak's dream was over. The problem with the
Stratosphere was that although the tower was a great success, with loads of people coming to visit it, very few of those people were actually staying in the casino to gambol. The 2nd hotel tower was eventually completed in 2001, bringing the total number of rooms up to 2,327
There have been 4 thrill rides at the top of the tower. When it first opened there was the
High Roller, that went around the side of the tower, and the
Big Shot, which catapults you skywards to 160 feet in 2.5 seconds. With the
High Roller at 909 foot, and the
Big Shot at 1081 foot, you won’t be surprised to hear that both were/ are the two tallest thrill rides in the World. On Halloween in 2003 a third ride opened called
X.Scream.
X.Scream is a giant metal arm that propels you 27 feet over the edge of the Tower at 30mph, 866 feet above the ground. The
High Roller was dismantled in 2005, and replaced by a new ride called
Insanity. Insanity consists of an arm that extends out 64 feet over the edge of the Tower and spins you around at up to 3 "G's." As the ride spins faster and faster, you are propelled up to an angle of 70 degrees.
800 feet above ground level you will find the Top of the World Restaurant that revolves 360 degrees in about 1 hour, and offers magnificent panoramic views of Las Vegas. To get on top of the Stratosphere you must take an elevator which travels at 21 mph, or 1,800 feet per minute or 3 floors a second. Now you might be thinking that if you were at the top and there was a fire, how the hell are you going to escape? Well, really the
Stratosphere is an eleven story building on top of an 800 foot tower. There is a single emergency stair, but that is considered impractical. So there are four double deck elevators that have been designed for emergency use. One is reserved for use by the fire department, with the remaining three used under manual control to evacuate all occupants from the two lower floors that are designed as areas of refuge. The tower only allow a certain amount of people up at the same time, this number is limited to the number of people that can be evacuated by the elevators in 1 hour.
Before we leave the
Stratosphere ground and
Bob Stupak, let’s see what his next resort might have been. Stupak wanted to build a 400 foot, 1,200 room hotel in the image of the
Titanic, across from the Sahara. The idea was rejected by the Las Vegas City Council and never materialized.