 Due to both the height of the tower and the hill it was built on, it could be seen away.The tower was the centrepiece of the Empire Exhibition and its image featured on many of the souvenirs that could be bought at the exhibition site.The Empire Exhibition took place at a time when Glasgow was the centre of British shipbuilding and engineering, and the materials - steel beams riveted together and clad in corrugated steel - were produced by Glasgow manufacturing plants.