The queue was all the way down the stairs and out the front door, but it moved reasonably quickly and we were waiting inside (on the stairs) within about 5 minutes. Another 10 minutes later we finally boarded the double-deck elevator. The elevator rails follow an angled path to the first level and then bend to a new angle to follow the contour of the curved legs of the tower. The cam beside the rails very gently angled the car over so it was always level. You wouldn't have guessed that the rails changed slope if you weren't looking.

We got out on the second level to a chilly wind, but a breathtaking view of the "City of Lights" at night. At this level you can walk all the way around the tower and closely examine the structure. The tower is painted a darkish "chocolate" brown. It looks lighter from far away (and with the lights on it). The paint was thick like an old battleship with lots of coats. I knocked on several places to see if there was any rotting metal under all that paint. All the parts I examined appeared sound to me. The whole tower is riveted together out of relatively small pieces of angle iron. I didn't see anything more than about 4 or 5mm (3/8 inch) thick!