BGuthrie Photos: NV -- Las Vegas -- Stratosphere -- Views from...

NV -- Las Vegas -- Stratosphere -- Views from...:

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Description of Pictures: All of the quoted text are from the direction signs in the Stratosphere Tower (which I photographed and also include here).

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. LVST_030605_001_STITCH.JPG: In the upper left: "Nellis Air Force Base, the largest and busiest base in the Air Combat command, is home to the 57th wing of the United States Air Force, and the famed Thunderbirds precision air-demonstration squadron. Named after Lt William Nellis, an area resident who died in WWII, the base covers over 11,000 acres and over 4,742 sq miles of restricted ranges."
2. LVST_030605_015.JPG: This is the view of the main modern Strip down Las Vegas. You can see a lot of construction for new casinos as well as the Luxor, Paris, and some others.
3. LVST_030605_017.JPG: That's the Stardust in front
4. LVST_030605_020.JPG: Hilton sign. "At a cost of $9 million, the Las Vegas Hilton has the world's largest and tallest free-standing sign. Rising twenty stories tall, it has over 6 miles of lights."
5. LVST_030605_030.JPG: The towers on the right are called Turnberry Place. You can also see the Hilton sign. To the left of the Hilton sign is the convention center. In the back: "McCarran International Airport. More than 30 million passengers a year travel by air to Las Vegas, making this the 8th busiest airport in the country. It is the 7th most popular international destination and has the longest civilian runway in the United States."
6. LVST_030605_037.JPG: In front: Circus Circus. "A mere two years after building and designing Caesar's Palace, Jay Sarno sold the property and opened Circus Circus. With the largest permanent circus in the world, Circus Circus has led the way for catering to middle income visitors and family entertainment on the strip." Behind it, the red dome is: "Grand Slam Canyon. Five acre indoor theme park, climate controlled, 72 degrees year round. The largest space frame dome in the country. The pink glass blocks out ultraviolet rays and allows natural sunlight into the park." You can also make out Treasure Island and the Mirage casinos on the upper left. Notice the vast open spaces in the upper right.
7. LVST_030605_047.JPG: In front: "The International Hilton, now the Las Vegas Hilton, opened in 1969 and was the largest hotel in the world at that time. Thought to be too large and too far from the strip to be successful, today it has become a center for meetings, conventions, and the trade show business. With regular entertainers such as Liberace and Elvis, fans were drawn from around the world. A monument to 'The King' stands outside the showroom." Just behind it: "The Las Vegas Convention Center, with over 1.6 million sq feet, is the largest single level convention facility in the nation. ... In August 1964, the Beatles played two concerts to over 8,500 people each. Sitting in the front row was Pat Boone." And beyond that is the airport.
8. LVST_030605_054.JPG: Turnberry Place again. I have no idea what this place is.
9. LVST_030605_058.JPG: "The Sahara began in 1947 as Club Bingo. It's success led owner Milton Prell to expand and remodel, this time with an African theme. It reopened October 7, 1952 as the Sahara."
10. LVST_030605_060.JPG: "This vacant area is the site of the original El Rancho Vegas, 1941, the first major resort on the strip. Built by Thomas Hull on 33 acres of "worthless" desert purchased for $150 an acre. It burned down in 1960 and was never rebuilt."
11. LVST_030605_062.JPG: "Open in 1955, Liberace headlined the Riviera showroom, and was paid $50,000 a week. At that time, Las Vegas homes cost less than $10,000."
12. LVST_030605_071.JPG: Palace Station
13. LVST_030605_090.JPG: According to the sign, somewhere to the left and above the Clark County Government Center was: "Moulin Rouge, the first interracial casino in Las Vegas, opened with national fanfare in May 1955 only to close six months later."
14. LVST_030605_091.JPG: Clark County Government Center
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Wikipedia Description: Stratosphere Las Vegas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Stratosphere Las Vegas is a tower, hotel, and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada, owned by American Casino & Entertainment Properties which is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Real Estate Partners. The property's signature attraction is the 1,149 ft (350 m) Stratosphere Tower, the tallest free-standing observation tower in the United States. It is the tallest structure of any kind in Nevada, and it is the second-tallest free-standing structure west of the Mississippi River, after the Kennecott Smokestack in Magna, Utah. The hotel is a separate building with approximately 20 stories, 2,444 rooms and an 80,000 square foot (7,000 m�) casino.

The Stratosphere is the northernmost of the major Strip casinos and the only one actually in the City of Las Vegas, as the rest of the strip south of Sahara Avenue is in the unincorporated townships of Paradise and Winchester. Following its completion in 1996 it was initially less popular than first envisioned due to its location on the extreme north end of the strip, far away from the most popular hotel casinos, but its low room prices and unique offerings eventually ensured its success. While many tourists consider its location to be inconvenient, others feel the location is an advantage since it is equidistant between the more popular strip casinos and the downtown area (which includes the Fremont Street Experience).

History:

In the early 1990s, The Stratosphere was conceived by Bob Stupak to replace his Vegas World casino. At the conception of the project, one of the planned rides was to be a giant ape that would carry riders up and down one of the tower's columns.

In 1995, Grand Casinos was brought on as an equity partner for the still privately funded project under construction.

While construction was still progressing, the Stratosphere Corporation was formed as a public company with shares being offered to the public.

The Stratosphere opened on April 30, 1996. Shortly after opening, the Stratosphere Corporation was forced to file for bankruptcy. This caused construction on the second tower to stop with only a few stories partially built and allowed Carl Icahn to gain control through one of his companies by buying a majority of the outstanding bonds.

A major addition was completed in June 2001 for $1 billion that included finishing the 1000-room second hotel tower.

In the early 2000s, the company attempted to get approval for a roller coaster that would run from several hundred feet up the tower and, in the last proposal, across Las Vegas Boulevard. Part of that last proposal included an entry monument on the ride over Las Vegas Boulevard welcoming people to the City of Las Vegas. The City Council did not approve the project due to objections from the neighbors over possible noise from the enclosed cars on the proposed ride. This ride was intended as a replacement for the never-built ape ride.

Since its opening in 1996, five people have jumped to their deaths from the top of the tower.

Attractions:

The top of the tower has two observation decks, a revolving restaurant, and three thrill rides:

* The Big Shot at 1,081 feet (329 m) is the highest thrill ride in the world;
* Insanity the Ride, opened in 2005, at 900 feet (274 m) is the second highest thrill ride in the world, it dangles riders over the edge of the tower and then spins in a circular pattern at approximately forty miles per hour.
* XSCREAM at 866 feet (264 m) is the third highest thrill ride in the world.

Previous attractions:

* The High Roller at 909 feet (277 m) was the second highest ride in the world and the highest roller coaster. It was closed on December 30, 2005 and dismantled to make space for a new attraction.

Gambling:

Some of the casino games include slot machines, video poker and European roulette. The Stratosphere has inherited some unusual variations on casino games from its Vegas World predecessor, such as "crapless craps" and "double-exposure blackjack", which came with a number of twists. For example, the variation on blackjack involved the dealers showing both of their cards, which appeared to greatly favor the player. However the rules also were changed that the house wins in the event of a push, which meant that statistically the game favored the casino more than in normal blackjack. This type of blackjack is popular in Atlantic City, but rarely seen in Las Vegas.

Controversies:

In two separate incidents in 2005, riders were left dangling several hundred feet above the Las Vegas Strip for nearly an hour and a half when one of the thrill rides shut down. Some have been critical of the Stratosphere's response to the situations. Rather than admitting culpability, in one case the Stratosphere representative asserted, "The ride didn't malfunction last night. It worked exactly as it should." The compensation offered to the stranded riders was also questionable: a one-year free pass to the ride.

In 2008 noted gambling mathematician Michael Shackleford brought a formal complaint against the Stratosphere for refusing to honor an expired winning sports ticket. At the Nevada Gaming Commission hearing it was discovered that the Stratosphere had been issuing tickets for years that incorrectly listed a shorter expiration date than was really the case. The Stratosphere garnered considerable negative press as a result of this incident, including from the Las Vegas Sun, which said, "The arrogance and the contempt for a paying customer of the casino are palpable.... the Stratosphere bosses should be ashamed of their actions. This episode gives another black eye to Nevada’s legal sports betting scene...."
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