EIFFEL TOWER HISTORY : THE BEGINNING

The most popular tourist place in Paris has stretched to the Parisian skies for 127
years. Although now symbolic of France, it wasn’t meant to last. Without a doubt, the
turning point in the Eiffel Tower history took place at the 1889 Universal Exposition.
In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution, a competition
was organized with the aim to “build on the Champ-de-Mars an iron tower with a
square base, 125 meters wide and 300 meters high.” Out of the 107 proposals
submitted, Gustave Eiffel’s was chosen. By his side were engineers Maurice
Koechlin and Emile Nouguier as well as architect Stephen Sauvestre.

THE IRON LADY FACING SKEPTICISM

The Eiffel Tower history was not an easy one. At the time, many were against the
building and voiced their concern in a letter entitled "Artists Against Mr. Eiffel’s
Tower", stating the tower to be a threat against the aesthetic nature of Paris. An iron
tower erected smack in the heart of Paris was considered unacceptable, a stark
contrast to the elegance and refined beauty of the city. For example, Verlaine
nicknamed the Eiffel Tower the “Skeleton of Beffroi” to demonstrate the giant tower’s
ungainly appearance that was bound to “disfigure” the city.

STORY OF A TEMPORARY BUILDING TURNED

INTO A FRENCH SYMBOL
When the project came to being, it had been established that the licensing rights
linked to the convention for the tower’s construction would last only 20 years,
followed by imminent destruction. However, two million people visited the
Tower during the Universal Exposition. Following this incredible success, the building
became a symbol of French industrial power. The Tower was as equally as successful
during the 1900 Universal Exposition. Determined to avoid the Tower’s destruction,
Gustave Eiffel went to great lengths to prove its scientific utility. Scientific
experiments were conducted in the fields of astronomy and physiology but what
would really save the Tower in the end was its use as a radio antenna tower, first for
military communications and then for permanent, radiotelegraphy communications; in
fact, the Tower served many a purpose during the First World War. The Eiffel Tower
is part of the French History.

THE SUCCESS STORY OF THE EIFFEL TOWER

 Every year approximately 7 million visitors climb the Tower. Its success is such that
many countries all over the world have replicated the Tower more or less identically to
the original one. Can you really imagine Paris without the Eiffel Tower? During your
stay in Paris, don't miss the Eiffel Tower light showsthat have been delighting the
tourists and Parisians since the end of the XIXth century.

he Design of the Eiffel Tower

The plan to build a tower 300 metres high was conceived as part of preparations for the World's Fair
of 1889.

Bolting the joint of two crossbowmen.(c): Collection Tour

Eiffel

The wager was to "study the possibility of erecting an iron tower on the Champ-de-Mars with a
square base, 125 metres across and 300 metres tall". Selected from among 107 projects, it was that
of Gustave Eiffel, an entrepreneur, Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier, both engineers, and
Stephen Sauvestre, an architect, that was accepted.

Emile Nouguier and Maurice Koechlin, the two chief engineers in Eiffel's company, had the idea for a
very tall tower in June 1884. It was to be designed like a large pylon with four columns of lattice
work girders, separated at the base and coming together at the top, and joined to each other by
more metal girders at regular intervals.

The tower project was a bold extension of this principle up to a height of 300 metres - equivalent to
the symbolic figure of 1000 feet. On September 18 1884 Eiffel registered a patent "for a new
configuration allowing the construction of metal supports and pylons capable of exceeding a height
of 300 metres".

In order to make the project more acceptable to public opinion, Nouguier and Koechlin
commissioned the architect Stephen Sauvestre to work on the project's appearance.

The construction
The assembly of the supports began on July 1, 1887 and was completed
twenty-two months later.
All the elements were prepared in Eiffel’s factory located at Levallois-Perret on the
outskirts of Paris. Each of the 18,000 pieces used to construct the Tower were
specifically designed and calculated, traced out to an accuracy of a tenth of a
millimetre and then put together forming new pieces around five metres each. A
team of constructors, who had worked on the great metal viaduct projects, were
responsible for the 150 to 300 workers on site assembling this gigantic erector
set.
The tower was assembled using wooden scaffolding and small steam
cranes mounted onto the tower itself.
The assembly of the first level was achieved by the use of twelve temporary wooden
scaffolds, 30 metres high, and four larger scaffolds of 40 metres each.
"Sand boxes" and hydraulic jacks - replaced after use by permanent wedges -
allowed the metal girders to be positioned to an accuracy of one millimetre.
On December 7, 1887, the joining of the major girders up to the first level was
completed. The pieces were hauled up by steam cranes, which themselves climbed
up the Tower as they went along using the runners to be used for the Tower's lifts.

Origins of the Eiffel Tower

In 1889 France held the Universal Exhibition, a celebration of modern achievement timed to coincide
with the first centenary of the French Revolution. The French government held a competition to
design an “iron tower” to be erected at the entrance to the exhibition on the Champ-de-Mars, partly
to create an impressive experience for visitors. One hundred and seven plans were submitted, and
the winner was one by engineer and entrepreneur Gustav Eiffel, aided by architect Stephen
Sauvestre and engineers Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier. They won because they were willing
to innovate and create a true statement of intent for France.

Design

Material

The Eiffel Tower from below

The puddled iron (wrought iron) of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tons,[58] and the addition of lifts,
shops and antennae have brought the total weight to approximately 10,100 tons.[59] As a
demonstration of the economy of design, if the 7,300 tons of metal in the structure were melted
down, it would fill the square base, 125 metres (410 ft) on each side, to a depth of only 6.25 cm
(2.46 in) assuming the density of the metal to be 7.8 tons per cubic metre.[60] Additionally, a cubic
box surrounding the tower (324 m x 125 m x 125 m) would contain 6,200 tons of air, weighing
almost as much as the iron itself. Depending on the ambient temperature, the top of the tower may
shift away from the sun by up to 18 cm (7 in) due to thermal expansion of the metal on the side
facing the sun.[61]

Did you know? The base pillars of the Eiffel Tower are oriented with the four points of the compass.
Eiffel reportedly rejected Koechlin’s original plan for the tower, instructing him to add more ornate
flourishes. The final design called for more than 18,000 pieces of puddle iron, a type of wrought iron
used in construction, and 2.5 million rivets. Several hundred workers spent two years assembling the
framework of the iconic lattice tower, which at its inauguration in March 1889 stood nearly 1,000
feet high and was the tallest structure in the world—a distinction it held until the completion of New
York City’s Chrysler Building in 1930. (In 1957, an antenna was added that increased the structure’s
height by 65 feet, making it taller than the Chrysler Building but not the Empire State Building, which
had surpassed its neighbor in 1931.) Initially, only the Eiffel Tower’s second-floor platform was open
to the public; later, all three levels, two of which now feature restaurants, would be reachable by
stairway or one of eight elevators.

Millions of visitors during and after the World’s Fair marveled at Paris’ newly erected architectural
wonder. Not all of the city’s inhabitants were as enthusiastic, however: Many Parisians either feared
it was structurally unsound or considered it an eyesore. The novelist Guy de Maupassant, for
example, allegedly hated the tower so much that he often ate lunch in the restaurant at its base, the
only vantage point from which he could completely avoid glimpsing its looming silhouette