Eiffel Tower, Paris

The Eiffel Tower in Paris needs no presentation, it is one the most well known monuments in the world visited by more than 5 million people each year. Built 1889 for the Universal Exhibition in celebration of the French Revolution. Height 324 m.

Essentially, the structure of the Eiffel Tower—which was a far-ranging extrapolation of Eiffel's spidery, wrought-iron bridge pylons—could not have been more simple: four immense, tapering, curved, lattice-girder piers that meet asymptotically. These piers rise from an immensely broad square base—125 meters on a side—and are laced together at two levels by connecting girders to form an integral unity of great stability.

History

The Eiffel {y'-ful} Tower, an immense structure of exposed latticework supports made of puddle iron, was erected for the Paris Exposition of 1889. The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII of England) officiated at the ceremonial opening. Of the 700 proposals submitted in a design competition, one was unanimously chosen, a radical creation from the French structural engineer Alexander Gustave Eiffel (b. Dec. 15, 1832, d. Dec. 28, 1923), who was assisted in the design by engineers Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier, and architect Stephen Sauvestre.

Shape of the tower

At the time the tower was built many people were shocked by its daring shape. Eiffel was criticized for the design and accused of trying to create something artistic, or inartistic according to the viewer, without regard to engineering. Eiffel and his engineers, as renowned bridge builders however, understood the importance of wind forces and knew that if they were going to build the tallest structure in the world they had to be certain it would withstand the wind.

There are elevators in the tower that can take you to the top. Double-decked elevators to the first and second levels are specially designed to ascend along the steep incline of the tower’s legs. More conventional double-decked glass elevators take you from the second level up to the summit. Since the tower is build of open ironwork, the ascent can be a very harrowing experience for anyone with a fear of heights, so beware!

The Eiffel Tower in Paris is re-painted every 7 years and it takes around 6 tons of paint to complete it, just to stop this monument from rusting. There are three levels in all. At the south towers base a ticket booth sells tickets to use the stairs, which begin at that location and the first and second levels are accessible by both stairs and lifts. But the third level summit is only accessible by lift. On the first platform, the stairs continue up from the east tower.

Only one worker was killed in building the Eiffel Tower. It was created to celebrate the anniversary of the French revolution. After the celebration it was saved from being demolished by being turned into a radio transmitter. As it has gotten older pavilions, an elevator, and other structures on the first and second floor. They have also added covers to protect people from rain.

Gustave Eiffel

The man behind the Eiffel Tower was Gustave Eiffel, known from his revolutionary bridge building techniques, as employed in the great viaduct at Eiffel Tower in the evening Garabit in 1884. These techniques would form the basis for the construction of the Eiffel Tower. He was also known for the construction of the Statue of Liberty's iron framework. The structure took more than two years to complete.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, the tower has been used for radio transmission. Until the 1950s, an occasionally modified set of antenna wires ran from the summit to anchors on the Avenue de Suffren and Champ de Mars. They were connected to long-wave transmitters in small bunkers; in 1909, a permanent underground radio centre was built near the south pillar and still exists today. On 20 November 1913 the Paris Observatory, using the Eiffel Tower as an antenna, exchanged sustained wireless signals with the United States Naval Observatory which used an antenna in Arlington, Virginia.

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