Public Viewing
The atrium containing Eartha is open to the public during business hours. There is an adjacent gift shop that carries various DeLorme and geography related products. The mounting equipment is in a large pit below floor level and is visible to visitors, but the stairway down is chained off to prevent public access. There are two balconies that allow visitors to more easily view the higher parts of the globe. Some offices within the building also have views overlooking Eartha.
Eartha was originally designed to be 42 feet (12.8 m) in diameter. In 1999, surveyors hired by the Guinness Book of World Records measured the globe at 41 feet 1.5 inches (12.53 m); while this is noted on the DeLorme web site (as of 2007-09-05), they also list the globe as 41.5 feet (12.6 m) in diameter. David DeLorme, CEO of the DeLorme mapping company, is credited with the design. The previous record holder is the Globe of Peace located in Apecchio, Pesaro, Italy.
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Famous quotes containing the words public and/or viewing:
“The zoo cannot but disappoint. The public purpose of zoos is to offer visitors the opportunity of looking at animals. Yet nowhere in a zoo can a stranger encounter the look of an animal. At the most, the animal’s gaze flickers and passes on. They look sideways. They look blindly beyond.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)
“Beguile the time, and feed your knowledge
With viewing of the town.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)