Built in 1889, the 50-metre-tall shot tower operated until 1947. Instead of tearing it down, the city built the Melbourne Central Shopping Centre entirely around it in 1991. Today, the historic tower stands beautifully preserved inside the mall, completely enclosed beneath a massive, 84-metre-high glass cone. A shot tower was a specialized, tall industrial building used from the late 18th to the 20th century to mass-produce round lead shot for muskets and shotguns using gravity