The Rainbow Tower is a 50.3 meter (165 ft) tower located at the Rainbow Plaza Canadian border station of the Rainbow Bridge

Rainbow Bridge (Niagara Falls)

The Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls is an international steel arch bridge across the Niagara River gorge, and is a world-famous tourist site. It connects the cities of Niagara Falls, New York, United States , and Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada .-Construction:The Rainbow Bridge was built near the...

 in Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls, Ontario

Niagara Falls is a Canadian city on the Niagara River in the Golden Horseshoe region of Southern Ontario. The municipality was incorporated on June 12, 1903...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. Construction on the tower was completed in 1947.

The Rainbow Carillon

The Rainbow Tower houses a carillon

Carillon

A carillon is a musical instrument that is typically housed in a free-standing bell tower, or the belfry of a church or other municipal building. The instrument consists of at least 23 cast bronze, cup-shaped bells, which are played serially to play a melody, or sounded together to play a chord...

 -- a musical instrument

Musical instrument

A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...

 consisting of a baton keyboard

Musical keyboard

A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a musical instrument, particularly the piano. Keyboards typically contain keys for playing the twelve notes of the Western musical scale, with a combination of larger, longer keys and smaller, shorter keys that repeats at the...

 that controls a series of bells. The Rainbow Carillon is sounded four times a day, 365 days a year. It features 55 bells with a total weight of over 43 tons. The instrument is controlled via a series of 55 oak batons and 30 foot pedals. The largest bell, called a bourdon

Bourdon (bell)

The bourdon is the heaviest of the bells that belong to a musical instrument, especially a chime or a carillon, and produces its lowest tone....

, is 8 feet (2.4 m) in diameter and 6.5 feet (2 m) tall, weighing in at 10 tons. Musically the pitch of this bell is E. http://www.gcna.org/data/ONNIFARB.HTM The smallest bell in the instrument weighs less than 9 pounds (4.1 kg) and has a circumference of 5.75 inches (146.1 mm).

The bell castings for the Rainbow Carillon were begun in 1941 by John Taylor Bellfounders

John Taylor Bellfounders

John Taylor & Co, formerly trading as Taylors, Eayre & Smith Ltd and John Taylor Bellfounders Ltd, and commonly known as Taylor's Bell Foundry or simply Taylor's, is the world's largest working bell foundry, located in Loughborough in the United Kingdom.The company manufactures bells for use in...

 of Loughborough

Loughborough

Loughborough is a town within the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England. It is the seat of Charnwood Borough Council and is home to Loughborough University...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, but interrupted by the onset of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Work on the instrument resumed in 1945 and was completed by 1947.

When the tower was built it contained a small apartment for the resident musician (the carilloneur). By the mid 1990s the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission

Niagara Falls Bridge Commission

The Niagara Falls Bridge Commission international public authority controlling three bridges between Ontario in Canada and New York in the United States. The Commission's bridges are the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge, Whirlpool Rapids Bridge and Rainbow Bridge. These bridges are in the Niagara Falls...

 had replaced the resident carilloneur with a fully automated system. The instrument can still be played manually, but is mostly automated to allow for frequent playing. In the past June Somerville, Robert Donnell, and Leland Richardson have served as carillonneurs at the tower. http://thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0002574

In film

The Rainbow Tower was featured in the 1953 Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....

 thriller Niagara

Niagara (1953 film)

Niagara is a 1953 thriller-film noir directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Joseph Cotten, Jean Peters, and introducing Marilyn Monroe. Unlike other film noirs of the time, Niagara was shot in Technicolor on location and was one of 20th Century Fox's biggest box-office hits of the year.-Plot:Ray...

. Scenes were filmed outside the base of the tower, combined with sound stage footage.