![]() It is the monument photographed by all visitors to Paris. It is photographed, drawn, filmed, and replicated in all kinds of circumstances. The Tower can be seen from many and various points around Paris and its suburbs. Since the beginning, the Eiffel Tower drew attention and served as the theatre for numerous events in the life of Paris and France: the grandiose fireworks on July 14 ("Bastille Day"), national-level events and large-scale sporting events. The Tower's destiny is closely linked to that of the city of Paris, the capital of France and the Eiffel Tower's owner. Its height and unique silhouette floating above the Paris landscape quickly made the Eiffel Tower one of the most popular attractions in Paris. Thanks to its universal power of attraction, it's the most visited monument in the world, with nearlty 7M visitors each year. Since 1889, the Eiffel Tower has always been opened for visits (except during the Word War 2 and the Covid-19 Pandemic): nearly 330 million visitors experienced the magic of the ascent -by elevator, or by the stairs - and discovered t8he magnificent view over Paris. Built for the 1889 Exposition universelle (World's Fair) which took place in Paris, Gustave Eiffel's masterpiece aimed to show to the world the audacity of the French in the industrial and technological domains at the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution.īeing the first tower to reach the height of 1,000 feet - twice as any structure previously erected- the Eiffel Tower remained the highest building in the world during 40 years: until the Empire State Building was erected in New York in 1931! Its peculiar iron silhouette instantly traveled across the world in the newspapers. Since it was built and opened to the public in 1889, the Eiffel Tower instantly gained an international fame, as it was then the tallest building in the world. General view of World's Fair of Paris, 1889 The Tower opened to the public the same day as the World's Fair, on May 15, 1889.Ĭontroversy over the Tower raged in the art world before and during its construction, but thanks to the audacity of its architecture and design, visitors and Parisians immediately fell under its charm and more than 2 million people toured it in the first year. That year, the World's Fair covered the entire Champ de Mars in Paris and its focus was the vast constructions in iron and steel that were the great industrial advancement of that time.įirst called the 300-meter Tower, it soon took the name of the man who built it, Gustave Eiffel. The Eiffel Tower was built to be one the main attractions at the Paris World's Fair in 1889. This repainting schedule was recommended by Gustave Eiffel himself and is still respected to date. To protect it from corrosion, the iron is covered with a thick coat of paint that has to be renewed every 7 years. Following this process, you obtain almost pure iron, which was, according to Gustave Eiffel at that time, the best and most robust of materials. The iron used to build the Eiffel Tower went through a refining process called puddling which eliminated the excess carbon when the ore was melted. Structure of the Eiffel Tower, © SETE_AlexandreNestora What is puddle iron? ![]() The prefab system is what allowed them to build the Eiffel Tower in a record time of 2 years, 2 months and 5 days. ![]() The iron plates and beams produced through the puddling process were then preassembled in the Eiffel factories in Levallois Perret using rivets.įinally, these pieces were taken to the Eiffel Tower construction site to be mounted. The puddle iron that makes up the Eiffel Tower's structure came from the Pompey forges (East of France). The Eiffel Tower is made of iron, not steel. What kind of metal is the Eiffel Tower made of? Gustave Eiffel's company, that was located in Levallois Perret, very near Paris, France, also built the metal framework for another world-famous monument: the Statue of Liberty (New York, United States), designed by Auguste Bartholdi and offered to the United States as a gift from France to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence in 1886. Gustave Eiffel is at the origin of many metallic works in Europe including the Porto Viaduct (Portugal), the Viaduct du Garabit (France) and the Budapest train station (Hungary). The Eiffel Tower was built from 1887 to 1889 by French engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company specialized in building metal frameworks and structures.
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