The Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower (french: Tour Eiffel, [tu? ?f?l]) Is A 19th Century Iron Lattice Tower Located On The Champ De

Mars In Paris That Has Become Both A Global Icon Of France And One Of The Most Recognizable Structures In

The World. The Eiffel Tower, Which Is The Tallest Building In Paris,[10] Is The Single Most Visited Paid Monument

In The World; Millions Of People Ascend It Every Year. Named After Its Designer, Engineer Gustave Eiffel, The

Tower Was Built As The Entrance Arch For The 1889 World's Fair.


The tower stands at 324 m (1,063 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-story building. It was the

tallest structure in the world from its completion until 1930, when it was eclipsed by the Chrysler Building in New

York City. Not including broadcast antennas, it is the second-tallest structure in France, behind the Millau Viaduct,

completed in 2004. And while the Eiffel Tower is a steel structure, and weighs approximately 10,000 tonnes, it

actually has a relatively low density, weighing less than a cylinder of air occupying the same dimensions as the

tower.
The tower has three levels for visitors. Tickets can be purchased to ascend either on stairs or lifts to the first and

second levels. The walk to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the walk from the first to the second level. The

third and highest level is accessible only by lift. Both the first and second levels feature restaurants.
The tower has become the most prominent symbol of both Paris and France. The tower is a featured part of the

backdrop in literally scores of movies that take place in Paris. Its iconic status is so established that it even serves

as a symbol for the entire nation of France, such as when it was used as the logo for the French bid to host the

1992 Summer Olympics.

Contents

• 1 History
o 1.1 Timeline of events
o 1.2 Engraved names
• 2 Design of the tower
o 2.1 Material
o 2.2 Wind considerations
o 2.3 Maintenance
o 2.4 Aesthetic considerations
• 3 Tourism
o 3.1 Popularity
o 3.2 Passenger lifts
? 3.2.1 Ground to the second level
? 3.2.2 Second to the third level
o 3.3 Restaurants
• 4 Attempted Relocation
o 4.1 Reproductions
• 5 Communications
o 5.1 FM-radio
o 5.2 Television
• 6 Image copyright claims
• 7 In popular culture
• 8 Taller structures
o 8.1 Lattice towers taller than the Eiffel Tower
o 8.2 Architectural structures in France taller than the Eiffel Tower
• 9 Other structures carrying this name

History


Eiffel Tower under construction in July 1888.
The structure was built between 1887 and 1889 as the entrance arch for the Exposition Universelle, a World's Fair

marking the centennial celebration of the French Revolution. Eiffel originally planned to build the tower in Barcelona,

for the Universal Exposition of 1888, but those responsible at the Barcelona city hall thought it was a strange and

expensive construction, which did not fit into the design of the city. After the refusal of the Consistory of Barcelona,

Eiffel submitted his draft to those responsible for the Universal Exhibition in Paris, where he would build his tower a

year later, in 1889. The tower was inaugurated on 31 March 1889, and opened on 6 May. Three hundred workers

joined together 18,038 pieces of puddled iron (a very pure form of structural iron), using two and a half million

rivets, in a structural design by Maurice Koechlin. The risk of accident was great, for unlike modern skyscrapers the

tower is an open frame without any intermediate floors except the two platforms. However, because Eiffel took safety

precautions, including the use of movable stagings, guard-rails and screens, only one man died.


Eiffel Tower Construction view:
girders at the first story.
The tower was met with much criticism from the public when it was built, with many calling it an eyesore.

Newspapers of the day were filled with angry letters from the arts community of Paris. One is quoted extensively in

William Watson's US Government Printing Office publication of 1892 Paris Universal Exposition: Civil Engineering,

Public Works, and Architecture. “And during twenty years we shall see, stretching over the entire city, still thrilling

with the genius of so many centuries, we shall see stretching out like a black blot the odious shadow of the odious

column built up of riveted iron plates.”[11] Signers of this letter included Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier, Charles

Gounod, Charles Garnier, Jean-Léon Gérôme, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, and Alexandre Dumas.
Novelist Guy de Maupassant—who claimed to hate the tower[12]—supposedly ate lunch in the Tower's restaurant

every day. When asked why, he answered that it was the one place in Paris where one could not see the

structure. Today, the Tower is widely considered to be a striking piece of structural art.
One of the great Hollywood movie clichés is that the view from a Parisian window always includes the tower. In

reality, since zoning restrictions limit the height of most buildings in Paris to 7 stories, only a very few of the taller

buildings have a clear view of the tower.
Eiffel had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years, meaning it would have had to be dismantled in 1909,

when its ownership would revert to the City of Paris. The City had planned to tear it down (part of the original

contest rules for designing a tower was that it could be easily demolished) but as the tower proved valuable for

communication purposes, it was allowed to remain after the expiration of the permit. The military used it to dispatch

Parisian taxis to the front line during the First Battle of the Marne, and it therefore became a victory statue of that

battle.
The co-architects of the Eiffel Tower were Emile Nouguier, Maurice Koechlin and Stephen Sauvestre.[13]
Timeline of events


Lightning strikes the Eiffel Tower on June 3, 1902, at 9:20 P.M.

10 September 1889
Thomas Edison visited the tower. He signed the guestbook with the following message—
To M Eiffel the Engineer the brave builder of so gigantic and original specimen of modern Engineering from one

who has the greatest respect and admiration for all Engineers including the Great Engineer the Bon Dieu, Thomas

Edison.
1910
Father Theodor Wulf took observations of radiant energy radiating at the top and bottom of the tower, discovering at

the top more than was expected, and thereby detecting what are today known as cosmic rays.[14]
4 February 1912
Austrian tailor Franz Reichelt died after jumping 60 metres from the first deck of Eiffel tower with his home-made

parachute.
In 1925
The con artist Victor Lustig "sold" the tower for scrap metal on two separate, but related occasions.[15]
1930
The tower lost the title of the world's tallest structure when the Chrysler Building was completed in New York City.
1925 to 1934
Illuminated signs for Citroën adorned three of the tower's four sides, making it the tallest advertising space in the

world at the time.
1940-1944
Upon the German occupation of Paris in 1940, the lift cables were cut by the French so that Adolf Hitler would

have to climb the steps to the summit. The parts to repair them were allegedly impossible to obtain because of the

war. In 1940 German soldiers had to climb to the top to hoist the swastika, but the flag was so large it blew

away just a few hours later, and it was replaced by a smaller one. When visiting Paris, Hitler chose to stay on the

ground. It was said that Hitler conquered France, but did not conquer the Eiffel Tower. A Frenchman scaled the

tower during the German occupation to hang the French flag. In August 1944, when the Allies were nearing Paris,

Hitler ordered General Dietrich von Choltitz, the military governor of Paris, to demolish the tower along with the rest

of the city. Von Choltitz disobeyed the order - it is rumored that Hitler was later persuaded to leave up the tower,

as he could use it to his advantage for radio broadcasts. The lifts of the Tower were working normally within hours

of the Liberation of Paris.
3 January 1956
A fire damaged the top of the tower.
1957
The present radio antenna was added to the top.
1980s
An old restaurant and its supporting iron scaffolding midway up the tower was dismantled; it was purchased and

reconstructed on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans, Louisiana, by entrepreneurs John Onorio and Daniel Bonnot,

originally as the Tour Eiffel Restaurant, known more recently as the Red Room. The restaurant was re-assembled

from 11,000 pieces that crossed the Atlantic in a 40-foot (12 m) cargo container.
31 March 1984
Robert Moriarty flew a Beechcraft Bonanza through the arches of the tower.[16]
1985
James Bond action/adventure film A View to a Kill, Sir Roger Moore as James Bond chases May Day played by

actress Grace Jones up the Eiffel Tower. She parachutes from the structure to escape. The video of the film's

theme tune, performed by the group Duran Duran, also included several scenes of the band staged on the tower

intercut with clips from the film. A full 20 years earlier, the Bond film Thunderball (1965) featured an establishing

shot of the tower as the villainous Largo, played by Adolfo Celi, parks outside the headquarters of SPECTRE in

Paris.
1987
A.J. Hackett made one of his first bungee jumps from the top of the Eiffel Tower, using a special cord he had

helped develop. Upon reaching the ground, Hackett was immediately arrested by the Paris police.[17]
14 July 1995
Bastille Day, French synthesiser musician Jean Michel Jarre performed Concert For Tolerance at the tower in aid of

UNESCO. The free concert was attended by an estimated 1.5 million people, filling the Champ de Mars. The concert

featured lighting and projection effects on the tower, and a huge firework display throughout. Exactly three years

later, he returned to the same spot for a more dance music orientated show, Electronic Night.
New Year's Eve 1999
The Eiffel Tower played host to Paris' Millennium Celebration. Fireworks exploded from the whole length of the tower

in a spectacular display. An exhibition above a cafeteria on the first floor commemorates this event.
2000
Flashing lights and four high-power searchlights were installed on the tower. Since then the light show has become

a nightly event. The searchlights on top of the tower make it a beacon in Paris' night sky.
2002
The tower received its 200,000,000th guest of all-time.[18][19]
22 July 2003
At 19:20, a fire occurred at the top of the tower in the broadcasting equipment room. The entire tower was

evacuated; the fire was extinguished after 40 minutes, and there were no reports of injuries.
Since 2004
The Eiffel Tower has hosted an ice skating rink on the first floor during the winter period.[20]
2008
At the start of the French Presidency of the European Union in the second half of 2008, the twelve golden stars of

the European Flag were mounted on the base, and whole tower bathed in blue light. In addition every hour, on the

hour, 20,000 flash bulbs give the tower a sparkly appearance.[21]
Engraved names
Main article: The 72 names on the Eiffel Tower
Gustave Eiffel engraved on the tower seventy-two names of French scientists, engineers and other notable people.

This engraving was painted over at the beginning of the twentieth century but restored in 1986–1987 by the Société

Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, a company contracted to operate business related to the Tower.
Design of the tower


The third floor of the Eiffel Tower, at night, seen from Trocadéro.
Material
The metal structure of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tonnes while the entire structure including non-metal

components is approximately 10,000 tonnes. Depending on the ambient temperature, the top of the tower may shift

away from the sun by up to 18 cm (7.1 in) because of thermal expansion of the metal on the side facing the

sun. As demonstration of the economy of design, if the 7300 tonnes of the metal structure were melted down it

would fill the 125 metre square base to a depth of only 6 cm (2.36 in), assuming a density of the metal to be

7.8 tonnes per cubic metre. The tower has a mass less than the mass of the air contained in a cylinder of the

same dimensions,[22] that is 324 metres high and 88.3 metres in radius. The weight of the tower is 10,100

tonnes compared to 10,265 tonnes of air.
Wind considerations
At the time the tower was built many people were shocked by its daring shape. Eiffel was criticised 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, however, as renowned bridge builders, 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.

In an interview reported in the newspaper Le Temps, Eiffel said:
Now to what phenomenon did I give primary concern in designing the Tower? It was wind resistance. Well then! I

hold that the curvature of the monument's four outer edges, which is as mathematical calculation dictated it should

be [...] will give a great impression of strength and beauty, for it will reveal to the eyes of the observer the

boldness of the design as a whole.[23]
The shape of the tower was therefore determined by mathematical calculation involving wind resistance. Several

theories of this mathematical calculation have been proposed over the years, the most recent is a nonlinear integral

differential equation based on counterbalancing the wind pressure on any point on the tower with the tension

between the construction elements at that point. That shape is exponential. A careful plot of the tower curvature

however, reveals two different exponentials, the lower section having a stronger resistance to wind forces.[24][25]

The tower sways 6–7 cm (2–3 in) in the wind.[26]
Maintenance
Maintenance of the tower includes applying 50 to 60 tonnes of paint every seven years to protect it from rust.
Aesthetic considerations
In order to maintain a uniform appearance to an observer on the ground, three separate colors of paint are used

on the tower, with the darkest on the bottom and the lightest at the top. On occasion the colour of the paint is

changed; the tower is currently painted a shade of brownish-grey.[27] On the first floor there are interactive

consoles hosting a poll for the colour to use for a future session of painting.
The only non-structural elements are the four decorative grillwork arches, added in Stephen Sauvestre's sketches,

which served to reassure visitors that the structure was safe, and to frame views of other nearby

architecture.[28][29][30]








Tourism


The Eiffel Tower from the neighborhood.
Popularity
More than 200,000,000 people have visited the tower since its construction in 1889,[31] including 6,719,200 in

2006,[26] making it the most visited paid monument in the world.[32][33]
Passenger lifts
Ground to the second level


The Eiffel Tower, October 2007.
The original lifts to the first and second floors were provided by two companies. Both companies had to overcome

many technical obstacles as neither company (or indeed any company) had experience with installing lifts climbing

to such heights with large loads. The slanting tracks with changing angles further complicated the problems. The

East and West lifts were supplied by the French company Roux Combaluzier Lepape, using hydraulically powered

chains and rollers. Contemporary engravings of the lift cars show that the passengers were seated at this time but

it is not clear whether this was conceptual. It would be unnecessary to seat passengers for a journey time of

around a couple of minutes. The North and South lifts were provided by the American Otis company using car

designs similar to the original installation but using an improved hydraulic and cable scheme. The French lifts had a

very poor performance and were replaced with the current installations in 1897 (West Pillar) and 1899 (East

Pillar) by Fives-Lille using an improved hydraulic and rope scheme. Both of the original installations operated

broadly on the principle of the Fives-Lille lifts.[34][35]
The Fives-Lille lifts from ground level to the first and second levels are operated by cables and pulleys driven by

massive water-powered pistons. The hydraulic scheme was somewhat unusual for the time in that it included three

large counterweights of 200 tonnes each sitting on top of hydraulic rams which doubled up as accumulators for the

water. As the lifts ascend the inclined arc of the pillars, the angle of ascent changes. The two lift cabs are kept

more or less level and indeed are level at the landings. The cab floors do take on a slight angle at times between

landings.


The Eiffel Tower illuminated in blue to celebrate the French presidency of the EU (July 2008).
The principle behind the lifts is similar to the operation of a block and tackle but in reverse. Two large hydraulic

rams (over 1 metre diameter) with a 16 metre travel are mounted horizontally in the base of the pillar which

pushes a carriage (the French word for it translates as chariot and this term will be used henceforth to distinguish

it from the lift carriage) with 16 large triple sheaves mounted on it. There are 14 similar sheaves mounted staticly.

Six wire ropes are rove back and forth between the sheaves such that each rope passes between the 2 sets of

sheaves 7 times. The ropes then leave the final sheaves on the chariot and passes up through a series of guiding

sheaves to above the second floor and then via a pair of triple sheaves back down to the lift carriage again

passing guiding sheaves.
This arrangement means that the lift carriage complete with its cars and passengers travels 8 times the distance

that the rams move the chariot which is the 128 metres from the ground to the second floor. The force exerted by

the rams also has to be 8 times the total weight of the lift carriage, cars and passengers plus extra to cater for

various losses such as friction. The hydraulic fluid was water, normally stored in the 3 accumulators complete with

counterbalance weights. To make the lift ascend, water was pumped using an electrically driven pump from the

accumulators to the two rams. Since the counterbalance weights provided much of the pressure required, the pump

only had to provide the extra effort. For the descent, it was only necessary to allow the water to flow back to the

accumulators using a control valve. The lifts were operated by an operator perched precariously underneath the lift

cars. His position (with a dummy operator) can still be seen on the lifts today.


A view from above.
The Fives-Lille lifts were completely upgraded in 1986 to meet modern safety requirements and to make the lifts

easier to operate. A new computer controlled system was installed which completely automated the operation. One of

the three counterbalances was taken out of use, and the cars were replaced with a more modern and lighter

structure. Most importantly, the main driving force was removed from the original water pump such that the water

hydraulic system provided only a counterbalancing function. The main driving force was transferred to a 320 kW

electrically driven oil hydraulic pump which drives a pair of hydraulic motors on the chariot itself thus providing the

motive power. The new lift cars complete with their carriage and a full 92 passenger load weigh 22 tonnes.
Due to elasticity in the ropes and the time taken to get the cars level with the landings, each lift in normal service

takes an average of 8 minutes and 50 seconds to do the round trip spending an average of 1 minute and 15

seconds at each floor. The average journey time between floors is just 1 minute.
The original Otis lifts in the North and South pillars in their turn proved inferior to the new (in 1899) French lifts

and were scrapped from the south pillar in 1900 and from the north pillar in 1913 after failed attempts to re-power

them with an electric motor. The north and south pillars were to remain without lifts until 1965 when increasing

visitor numbers persuaded the operators to install a relatively standard and modern rope hoisted system in the north

pillar using a rope hauled counterbalance weight, but hoisted by a block and tackle system to reduce its travel to

one third of the lift travel. The counterbalance is clearly visible within the structure of the North pillar. This latter lift

was upgraded in 1995 with new cars and computer controls.
The South tower acquired a completely new fairly standard electrically driven lift in 1983 to serve the Jules Verne

restaurant. This was also supplied by Otis.
A further 4 tonne service lift was added to the south pillar in 1989 by Otis to relieve the main lifts when moving

relatively small loads or even just maintenance personnel.
The east and west hydraulic (water) lift works are on display and, at least in theory, are open to the public in a

small museum located in base of the East and West tower, which is somewhat hidden from public view. Because

the massive mechanism requires frequent lubrication and attention, public access is often restricted. However, when

open, the wait times are much less than the other, more popular, attractions. The rope mechanism of the North

tower is visible to visitors as they exit from the lift.
Second to the third level


The original spiral stairs to the third floor which were only 80 centimetres wide. Note also the small service lift in

the background.
The original lift from the second to the third floor were also of a water powered hydraulic design supplied by Léon

Edoux. Instead of using a separate counterbalance, the two lift cars counterbalanced each other. A pair of 81 metre

long hydraulic rams were mounted on the second level reaching nearly half way up to the third level. A lift car was

mounted on top of the rams. Ropes ran from the top of this car up to a sheave on the third level and back down

to a second car. The result of this arrangement was that each car only travelled half the distance between the

second and third levels and passengers were required to change lifts halfway walking between the cars along a

narrow gangway with a very impressive and relatively unobstructed downward view. The 10 tonne cars held 65

passengers each or up to 4 tonnes.
One interesting feature of the original installation was that the hoisting rope ran through guides to retain it on windy

days to prevent it flapping and becoming damaged. The guides were mechanically moved out of the way of the

ascending car by the movement of the car itself. In spite of some antifreeze being added to the water that

operated this system, it nevertheless had to close to the public from November to March each year.


The original Hydraulic pump for the Edoux lifts.
The original lifts complete with their hydraulic mechanism were completely scrapped in 1982 after 97 years of

service. They were replaced with two pairs of relatively standard rope hoisted cars which were able to operate all

the year round. The cars operate in pairs with one providing the counterbalance for the other. Neither car can

move unless both sets of doors are closed and both operators have given a start command. The commands from

the cars to the hoisting mechanism are by radio obviating the necessity of a control cable. The replacement

installation also has the advantage that the ascent can be made without changing cars and has reduced the ascent

time from 8 minutes (including change) to 1 minute and 40 seconds. This installation also has guides for the

hoisting ropes but they are electrically operated. The guide once it has moved out of the way as the car ascends

automatically reverses when the car has passed to prevent the mechanism becoming snagged on the car on the

downward journey in the event it has failed to completely clear the car. Unfortunately these lifts do not have the

capacity to move as many people as the 3 public lower lifts and long queues to ascend to the third level are

common. Most of the intermediate level structure present on the tower today was installed when the lifts were

replaced and allows maintenance workers to take the lift half way.
The replacement of these lifts allowed the restructuring of the criss-cross beams in upper part of the tower and

further allowed the installation of two emergency staircases. These replaced the dangerous winding stairs that were

installed when the tower was constructed.
Restaurants
The tower has two restaurants: Altitude 95, on the first floor 311 ft (95 m) above sea level; and the Jules Verne,

an expensive gastronomical restaurant on the second floor, with a private lift. This restaurant has one star in the

Michelin Red Guide. In January 2007, the multi-Michelin star chef Alain Ducasse was brought in to run Jules

Verne.[36]
Attempted Relocation


Replica at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel, Nevada, United States.


Replica at Walt Disney World's EPCOT.


Replica at Tianducheng, Hangzhou, China.


Replica at Kings Island near Cincinnati, Ohio, United States.


Replica of Eiffel Tower on factory building at Satteldorf near Crailsheim, Germany.


Replica in Parizh village, Russia.
According to interviews given in the early 1980s Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau negotiated a secret agreement with

French President Charles DeGaulle for the tower to be dismantled and temporarily relocated to Montreal to serve as

a landmark and tourist attraction during Expo 67. The plan was allegedly vetoed by the company which operated

the tower out of fear that the French government could refuse permission for the tower to be restored to its original

location.[37]
Reproductions
As one of the most iconic images in the world, the Eiffel Tower has been the inspiration for dozens of duplicate

and similar towers around the world.
• The Eiffel Tower was the inspiration for the Blackpool Tower in Blackpool, England. After visiting the Great

Paris Exhibition in 1889, the towns mayor John Bickerstaffe commissioned the building of the tower, which has a

very similar design and was completed 1894. The main differences are that the Blackpool Tower is approximately

half the height of the Eiffel Tower and is not freestanding, the base being contained within buildings which house

the Tower Circus. Both the Eiffel Tower and Blackpool Tower feature on the list of the World Federation of Great

Towers.
Other Eiffel-inspired towers, in order of decreasing height:
• In front of the Paris Las Vegas hotel/casino on the Las Vegas Strip, Paradise, Nevada, near Las Vegas,

Nevada — 165 m (541 ft) (scale 1:2). 36°6'45?N 115°10'20?W / 36.1125°N 115.17222°W
• Tianducheng, Hangzhou, China ~108 m[38][39] 30°23'6.72?N 120°14'36.60?E / 30.3852°N

120.2435°E
• Kings Island Amusement Park, Mason, Ohio — ~101 m (~332 ft, scale 1:3) 39°20'36?N 84°16'1?W /

39.34333°N 84.26694°W [2]
• Kings Dominion Amusement Park, Doswell, Virginia — ~101 m (332 ft, scale 1:3)
• Shenzhen, China — ~100 m (~328 ft, scale 1:3) 22°32'13.33?N 113°58'9.51?E / 22.5370361°N

113.9693083°E
• Slobozia, Romania — 54 m (177 ft)
• In Parizh, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. Built by South Ural Cell Telephone company as a cellphone tower —

50 m (164 ft) 53°17'51.02?N 60°5'59.46?E / 53.2975056°N 60.09985°E
• In Zoo, Copenhagen, Denmark. Wooden replica — 50 m (164 ft) 55°40'19.16?N 12°31'24.70?E /

55.6719889°N 12.523528°E
• Fayetteville, North Carolina — The Bordeaux Tower is about 45 m (148 ft) (150 ft) featuring an elevator

that takes people to the top for a small view.
• Walt Disney World's EPCOT theme park in Lake Buena Vista, Florida (at the France Pavilion in World

Showcase) — 23 (76 ft, scale 1:10)[40]
• Paris, Texas — 20 m (66 ft) (65 ft)
• Eiffel Tower (Paris, Tennessee) in Paris, Tennessee — about 60 feet (18 m) tall.
• As a Meccano model, housed at the SciTrek technology museum in (Atlanta, Georgia) — 11 m (36

ft)[41]
• On the roof of the catering company Rungis Express in Meckenheim and Satteldorf, Germany — (height

unknown)
• Centerpiece of the Falconcity of Wonders — a planned new development project in Dubai. UAE, featuring

seven modern wonders of the world (planned).[42] 25°5'43.8?N 55°20'31.5?E / 25.0955°N 55.342083°E

(approximate coordinates)
• Inwald Miniature Park, Inwald, Poland
• Mini-Europe, Brussels, a 12.96 m model (a proportion of 1:25 to the original).
• Model on the roof of the Rue De Paris cafe in Brisbane, Australia — (roughly 12 m (39 ft) tall)
• Montmartre, Saskatchewan - 8.5 metres tall.
• Model in the First World Plaza shopping mall in Genting Highlands, Malaysia[43]
• In Austin, Texas there is a 7.5 m (25 ft) tall replica at the Dreyfus Antique Shop.
• An 18 m model in Filiatra, Messinia, Greece, at the entrance of the village[44][45]
• Paris, Michigan; approximately 3 m (10 ft) (10 ft) tall and in a park
• Baku, Azerbaijan, Sahil Trade Center, at "Parfums de France" shop. Approximately 3 m (10 ft) tall.
• Golden Sands sea resort in Varna, Bulgaria — A tower with a ratio of 1:10 to the original is built in the

town as a tourist attraction.
• Aktau, Kazakhstan — model at the front of the office of Oil Construction Company
• Satteldorf near Crailsheim, Germany. On the top of a company building
• In 2007 the Lego company released a 1:300 scale model of the Eiffel tower as a set.[46] It contains

3428 pieces and stands 108 cm (42.5 in) tall and 50 cm (19.7 in) wide and deep.
Communications
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.[citation needed] 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. The object of the transmissions was to measure the

difference in longitude between Paris and Washington, D.C.[47] Today, both radio and televisioni stations broadcast

their signals from the top of the Eiffel.
FM-radio
Programme Frequency ERP
France Inter

Regional
90,35 MHz
3 kW
France Culture
93,35 MHz
3 kW
France Musique
97,6 MHz
3 kW
Television
Programme Channel-Number Frequency ERP
Canal+
6 182,25 MHz 100 kW
France 2
22 479,25 MHz 500 kW
TF1
25 503,25 MHz 500 kW
France 3
28 527,25 MHz 500 kW
France 5
30 543,25 MHz 100 kW
M6
33 567,25 MHz 100 kW
Image copyright claims


Panoramic view from underneath the Eiffel Tower.
The tower and its representations have long been in the public domain; however, a French court ruled, in March

1992, that the night-time light display is protected under copyright, except in a panoramic view. SNTE (Société

nouvelle d'exploitation de la tour Eiffel) installed a special lighting display on the tower in 1989, for the tower's

100th anniversary. Court of Cassation, France's judicial court of last resort, decided that the display was an "original

visual creation" protected by copyright.[48] Since then, the SNTE considers any night-time image of the lighting

display under copyright. As a result, it is no longer legal to publish contemporary photographs of the tower at night

without permission in France and some other countries.[49][50]


The Eiffel Tower and the Seine at night.
The imposition of copyright has been controversial. The Director of Documentation for SNTE, Stéphane Dieu,

commented in January 2005, "It is really just a way to manage commercial use of the image, so that it isn't used

in ways we don't approve." However, it also potentially has the effect of prohibiting tourist photographs of the tower

at night from being published,[51] as well as hindering non-profit and semi-commercial publication of images of the

tower. Besides, French doctrine and jurisprudence traditionally allow pictures incorporating a copyrighted work as long

as their presence is incidental or accessory to the main represented subject[52], a reasoning akin to the De

minimis rule. Thus, SNTE could not claim copyright on photographs of panoramas of Paris incorporating the lit tower.
In popular culture
Main article: Eiffel Tower in popular culture
As a global landmark, the Eiffel Tower is featured in media including films, video games, and television shows.

Taller structures
Although it was the world's tallest structure when completed in 1889, the Eiffel Tower has since lost its standing

both as the tallest lattice tower and as the tallest structure in France.
Lattice towers taller than the Eiffel Tower
Name Pinnacle height Year Country Town Remarks
Kiev TV Tower
1,263 ft (385 m) 1973 Ukraine Kiev Tallest lattice tower of the world
Tashkent Tower
1,230 ft (375 m) 1985 Uzbekistan
Tashkent
Pylons of Yangtze River Crossing
1,137 ft (347 m) 2003 People’s Republic of China
Jiangyin 2 towers, tallest pylons in the worldDragon Tower
1,102 ft (336 m) 2000 People’s Republic of China
Harbin
Tokyo Tower
1,091 ft (333 m) 1958 Japan Tokyo
WITI TV Tower
1,078 ft (329 m) 1962 U.S. Shorewood, Wisconsin
WSB TV Tower
1,075 ft (328 m) 1957 U.S. Atlanta, Georgia
Architectural structures in France taller than the Eiffel Tower
Name Pinnacle height Year Structure type Town Remarks
Longwave transmitter Allouis
350 m 1974 Guyed Mast Allouis
HWU transmitter
350 m ? Guyed Mast Rosnay Multiple masts
Viaduc de Millau
343 m 2004 Bridge Pillar Millau
TV Mast Niort-Maisonnay
330 m ? Guyed Mast Niort
Transmitter Le Mans-Mayet
342 m 1993 Guyed Mast Mayet
Transmitter Roumoules
330 m 1974 Guyed Mast Roumoules spare transmission mast for long wave, insulated against

ground
Other structures carrying this name
• Eiffel Tower (Paris, Tennessee)
• Eiffel Tower Co-op in Hackensack, New Jersey, USA


324 m
276 m
115 m
57 m
250 m2
1 430 m2
4 415 m2
125 m
All you
need to
know about
the Eiffel Tower
Key figures
• Initial height: 312 m (to the top of the flagpole)
• Current height (including antennas): 324 m
• The deepest foundations: (North and West) lie 15 meters
underground. In each of these foundations, four pillars of masonry
are built, which bear the four uprights of each leg of the Tower,
known as rafters.
• Total weight: 10,100 tons
• Weight of the iron structure: 7,300 tons
• Space between the pillars:
1st platform: 4,415 m2
2nd inner platform: 1,430 m2
3rd inner platform: 250 m2
• Height of the platforms:
1st platform: 57 m
2nd inner platform: 115 m
3rd inner platform: 276 m
• Lighting: 336 600-W projector lamps (sodium lamps).
• Number of bulbs for the Sparkling Tower: 20,000
• Number of steps in the East pillar to the top: 1,665
• Number of rivets (total): 2,500,000
• Weight of paint used: 60 tons for each repainting campaign
• Time required for painting: the Eiffel Tower was repainted
in its entirety every seven years.
• Number of elevators: From the ground to the second floor:
5 (one in the East pillar, one in the West pillar, one in the North
pillar, one private elevator in the South pillar for the “Jules Verne”
restaurant and one goods elevator in the South pillar). From the
second floor to the top: two sets of two duolifts.
• Elevator speed: 2 meters/second.
• Passenger flow and capacity of the elevators
North pillar: 920 persons/hour
East pillar: 650 persons/hour
West pillar: 650 persons/hour
Duolifts: 1,140 persons/hour
Jules Verne: 10 persons/ascent
Goods elevator in the South pillar: 30 persons or 4 tons/ascent
• Number of persons working on the Tower:
SNTE: 280
Restaurants: 240
Souvenirs: 50
Other: around 50
• Number of analogical TV stations: 6
• Number of free digital TV stations: 30
• Number of radio stations: 31
• Number of antennas: 120



Card 1 Gustave Eiffel
(1832 - 1923)
Born on December 15, 1832 in Dijon, Gustave Eiffel was an exceptionally gifted engineer and
builder. He graduated from the prestigious Ecole Centrale de Paris. His extraordinary career
was marked in 1876 by the construction of the Maria Pia bridge over the River Douro in
Portugal, then by that of the Garabit Viaduct in central France in 1884 and Budapest station in
Hungary. He was responsible for the metal structures of the Bon Marché department store and
the Crédit Lyonnais bank in Paris, the cupola of the Nice observatory, and, above all, the very
impressive internal structure of the Statue of Liberty. The construction of the Eiffel Tower in
1889 was his crowning achievement. His career as an entrepreneur would come to an end with
the failure of the Panama Canal project. From then on, he devoted his time to operating the
Tower and to various experiments in air resistance, the observation of meteorology
and especially the installation of a giant antenna for the earliest radio broadcasts. Indeed,
it is because of these experiments that the Eiffel Tower is still standing, since it was initially built
to last 20 years!
Biography – A few key dates
• 1832 - Born in Dijon on December 15 to François-Alexandre
Eiffel and Catherine Mélanie Moneuse.
• 1843 - His early childhood is spent with his maternal
grandmother and at school at the Lycée in Dijon where he
passed his baccalaureate.
1850 - He enrols at the Paris college of Sainte-Barbe to
prepare his entrance exam to Polytechnique. Having failed the
exam, he signs on at École Centrale where he chooses to study
chemistry.
• 1855 - He successfully obtains his diploma from École Centrale
and embarks on a career in metallurgy, where his mother has
some contacts.
• 1856 - He is recruited by Charles Nepveu, a builder of steam
machines and equipment for the railways.
• 1857 - He is appointed head of the design department at
Pauwels & Cie.
• 1858-1860 - Construction of the Bordeaux bridge.
• 1860 - Marries Marie Gaudelet on July 8.
• 1863 - Birth of his daughter Claire. The couple will have two
more daughters and two sons.
• 1867 - Having been a self-employed consultant engineer for a
year, he starts his own company.
• 1868-1871 - Construction of a viaduct on the Commentry-
Gannat line.
• 1871-1873 - Various projects in Spain, Portugal, Romania,
Egypt and Latin America, the viaducts of the Brive-Tulle line, and
the Thouars Viaduct.
• 1875 - The Western Station in Budapest.
• 1876 - The Maria-Pia bridge in Portugal and numerous
construction projects for the Universal Exhibition of 1878.
• 1877 - Death of his wife, then of his mother.
• 1879 - Viana and Beira-Alta bridges in Portugal.
• 1880 - Szeged bridge in Hungary.
• 1880-1884 - Construction of the Garabit Viaduct.
• 1882 - The Cubzac bridge and the exporting of bridges that
can be dismantled in Indochina.
• 1883 - Viaduct over the Tardes.
• 1884 - Observatory of Nice, grand equatorial cupola.
• 1885 - Internal structure of the Statue of Liberty.
• 1887 - Work starts on “the 300-metre high tower”. Contract
for the Panama Canal.
• 1889 - The Tower is completed. Opening of the Universal
Exhibition.
• 1890-1895 - Involved in the Panama Canal corruption scandal,
he is at first condemned by the Paris Appeals Court but the
verdict is overruled and the builder is cleared of all wrongdoing.
Gustave Eiffel withdraws from the company to devote his time
to his scientific work.
• 1909 - Designed an aeronautics laboratory near the Champde-
Mars, in Paris and experiments with detent apparatus.
• 1912 - Construction on Rue Boileau in Paris of the first wind
tunnel.
• 1923 - Death of Gustave Eiffel on December 27.
Card 2 The state of technology at
the end of the XIXth century
The end of the XIXth century saw a considerable number of inventions that have revolutionized
our lives, from the telephone to car racing and the vaccine against rabies.
At the time, Jules Verne was writing his futuristic novels, France was building a colonial empire,
trade was prosperous and the industrial revolution was in full swing. Things were moving,
everything was changing. This period, sometimes called “the spring of technology”, was a time
of creative effervescence, crowned by Gustave Eiffel’s “Grand Iron Lady”. The “A” over
the Champ-de-Mars symbolized the beginning of a major movement that has continued
to this very day.
Some scientific benchmark dates
• 1876-1877 - The four-stroke engine (Gottlieb Daimler,
Nikolaus Otto, Maybach).
• 1876 - Philo Remington’s typewriter.
• 1876 - The telephone is invented by Alexander Graham Bell.
• 1877 - The phonograph is invented by Charles Cros in France
and then by Thomas Edison in the United States.
• 1879 - Thomas Edison invents the incandescent lamp and
Werner von Siemens the first electric locomotive.
• 1881 - “La Rapide”, a steam-run car, is invented by Amédée
Bollée.
• 1882 - “The photographic rifle” is invented by Etienne Jules
Marey and electric lighting appears in the streets of New York.
• 1883 - First attempts to transmit hydraulic energy.
• 1884 - Lewis Edson Waterman invents the first practical
fountain pen.
• 1885 - Louis Pasteur invents the vaccine against rabies.
• 1886 - The first electric street lamps appear in Paris.
• 1887 - Construction of the Eiffel Tower begins.
• 1888 - Kodak arrives in France. Heinrich Hertz discovers
electromagnetic waves.
• 1889 - Transparent photographic film on nitrocellulose is
invented by George Eastman.
• 1890 - Clément Ader takes off aboard “Éole”. Léon Serpollet
designs the three-wheel steam-run vehicle. The iron filings
coherer by Edouard Branly, the first person to detect Hertzian
waves. Etienne Jules Marey introduces chronophotography on
mobile film.
• 1891 - Edouard Michelin brings in the first removable tires for
bicycles, adapted to cars in 1894.
• 1892 - Émile Reynaud’s optical theatre at the Musée Grévin.
The first engine patent was filed by Otto Diesel.
• 1894-1903 - The first car races on roads.
• 1895 - The first Lumière film showing open to the public and
the discovery of X-rays by Wilhelm Röntgen.
• 1896 - The discovery of radioactivity in uranium salts by Henri
Becquerel.
• 1897 - The first wireless telegraph transmission by Edouard
Branly and Guglielmo Marconi.
• 1898 - The first telegraph link between the Panthéon and the
Eiffel Tower (Eugène Ducretet and Ernest Roger). Pierre and
Marie Curie: radium.
• 1899 - The first wireless communication across the Channel
by Guglielmo Marconi.
• 1900 - The Universal Exhibition, the first Paris metro and
the construction of the first rigid airship or dirigible balloon by
Count Ferdinand Von Zeppelin.
• 1901 - Santos Dumont flies over the Eiffel Tower in a dirigible.
• 1902 - Léon Gaumont invents the chronophone, the ancestor
to talking film.
• 1903 - The Wright brothers take off for the first time in their
biplane.
• 1904 - The first telegraph links are set up from the Eiffel Tower,
under the supervision of Captain Ferrié.
• 1908 - Wilbur Wright’s flights.
• 1909 - Louis Blériot crosses the Channel.
• 1915 - Paul Langevin invents sonar.
Card 3
The Eiffel Tower era
One century after the French Revolution, France was booming in the scientific, cultural and
artistic fields. This was the golden age of Freud, Zola, Jules Verne and Rodin.
1886
• General Boulanger is appointed Minister of War.
• Industry is carried by science, and science stimulated by
industry.
• Improvements in means of communication (the Suez Canal
opened in 1869) puts China a month away from Marseille, and
Japan less than 40 days away.
• The Impressionists show their work in New York despite never
having met with success in France.
• The Americans inaugurate the Statue of “Liberty that lit the
world”, designed by sculptor Auguste Bartholdi (structure by
Gustave Eiffel).
• At the end of the XIXth century, fashion reflects economic
and social life. Lavishly attired, the bourgeoisie fills the salons in
vogue, the clubs and theatres.
• Sarah Bernhardt plays Marion Delorme.
• Sigmund Freud opens his practice in Vienna.
1887
• Sadi Carnot is elected President of the Republic.
• Building of the new Bourse de Commerce is completed.
• The first labor exchange opens in Paris.
• The International Congress of Astronomers decides to make
the first map of the sky.
• André Antoine founds the Free Theatre.
• Gustave Ferrié enters Polytechnique.
1888
• William II becomes Emperor of Germany.
• 11,000 people in France have a telephone.
• Emile Zola completes Les Rougon-Macquart.
• Jules Verne has been writing Les Voyages Extraordinaires for
25 years.


1889
• Banquet of the Mayors of France.
• The decline and end of Le Boulangisme.
• Foundation of the Second International.
• Benjamin Harrison is elected President of the United States,
and the first Panamerican Conference is held in Washington.
• Paul Claudel writes Tête d’Or, Alfred Jarry embarks on Ubu
Roi, Knut Hamsun pens Hunger and Paul Bourget Le disciple.
• Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin in Arles.
• Foundation of the the Nabis group of artists.
• Birth of Charles Spencer Chaplin, known as Charlie… and
of Martin Heidegger, Adolf Hitler, Abel Gance, Jean Cocteau,
Jean de Lattre de Tasssigny.
• Death of Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly, Philippe de Villiers de l’Isle-
Adam and Eugène Chevreul, a French chemist fascinated by the
construction of the Eiffel Tower.
• After Les Bourgeois de Calais, Auguste Rodin sculpts The Kiss.
• Birth of René Barthélémy, the pioneer of French television.
Card 4 Beginnings and
construction of the Eiffel Tower
For the Universal Exhibition of 1889, a date that marked the centenary of the French
Revolution, the Journal Officiel launched a major competition to “study the possibility of
erecting an iron tower on the Champ-de-Mars. The tower would have a square base, 125 metres
on each side and 300 meters high”. The project proposal by entrepreneur Gustave Eiffel,
engineers Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier and architect Stephen Sauvestre was chosen
out of a total of 107.
The design
Fifty engineers and designers produced 5,300 drawings, and over
100 workers built more than 18,000 different parts of the tower
in a workshop. Another 132 workers assembed them on site.
Construction
• Work on the foundations began on January 26, 1887 and took
five months, with the workers using only spades. The rubble was
taken away by carts drawn by horses and steam locomotives.
• The pillars. While there was no problem building pillars 2 and
3 on the Champ-de-Mars side, on the Seine River side, pillars
1 and 4 required air-compressed foundations using corrugated
steel caissons five meters under water.
• The deepest foundations lay just 15 meters underground. The
feet of the tower were set in each of these foundation ditches
(four foundations in masonry, which supported the four pillars,
known as truss frames).
• Assembling the first floor. The difficulty of the assembly
lay in the point of departure at the base of the truss frames.
They had to be positioned at a slanting angle so that they would
meet the horizontal beams on the first floor. To achieve this, the
engineers used hydraulic jacks to move each “foot” and erected
an original scaffolding system, on top of which were a number
of boxes of sand that emptied to regulate the slant of the truss
frames. The jacks no longer exist, but the Eiffel Tower operating
company, Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, has reproduced
them, and they are on show in the Ferrié Pavilion on the first
floor of the Tower.
• The second floor was assembled with cranes that took the
same route as the elevators. All of the parts were built in the
Eiffel workshops in Levallois, on the edge of Paris, and riveted
into position on site. The Tower was mounted rather like a
giant Meccano® with remarkable precision, which was a major
innovation at the time.
• From the second to the third floor, the carpenters worked
wonders and there was not one single fatal accident during the
construction period.
• The monument was inaugurated on March 31, 1889. On
that day, Gustave Eiffel climbed the 1,710 steps of the Tower to
plant the French flag at its peak. He was followed by the members
of the Council of Paris, including Emile Chautemps, President of
the Paris City Council. The Eiffel Tower was the highest building
in the world until 1929, when the Chrysler Building in New York
topped it at 319 metres.
Key figures for an epic
• The four pillars of the Eiffel Tower stand in a square that
measures 125 meters on each side. They are oriented in line
with the 4 cardinal points.
The metal structure weighs 7,300 tons.
• Total weight: 10,100 tons.
• Number of rivets used: 2,500,000.
• Number of iron parts: 18,038.
• Cost of construction: 7,799,401.31 French gold francs of 1889.
Height Surface
Initial 312 m
Current 324 m
1st floor 57 m 4 415 m2
2nd floor 115 m 1 430 m2
3rd floor 276 m 250 m2
Card 5
The elevators
Since the opening of the Eiffel Tower for the Universal Exhibition of 1889, visitors have been
able to visit the different floors of the monument via elevators. A formidable technical feat for
the period as never before had engineers tackled such constraints of height and elevator loads.
These elevators have offered total security to hundreds of thousands of visitors climbing the
Tower for a better glimpse of Paris from its very beginning. Although today we may take these
elevators for granted, back then they were considered a great technical achievement.
Certain elevators from the early days of the Tower’s existence are still operative; preserved
with great care, they attest to the technical heritage that genius and visionary Gustave Eiffel
contributed to our present day.
The elevators at the time
of construction
• Between the ground floor and the second floor: The
four pillars were equipped with one or two cabins. In June 1889,
five hydraulic elevators went into operation. This initial elevator
technology was further modernized a decade later by Gustave
Eiffel for the Universal Exposition of 1900.
• Between the the second and third floor: An “Edoux”
elevator was put into service, a hydraulic machine that was the
only one of its type in the world, with jacks 80 meters long. (It
was dismounted in 1983).
• North and South pillars: “Otis” elevators carried the
visitors up and down until dismounted in 1910.
• East and West pillars: “Roux-Combaluzier” elevators were
in service until 1897.
The elevators today
• North pillar: A “Schneider” electric elevator was installed in
1965, modernized between the years 1994 and 1995 and then
revised again in 1997. Its speed reducer was changed in 2004.
• South pillar: An “Otis” electric elevator has been used
exclusively by customers of the Jules Verne restaurant since
1983. Also in service, a 4-ton freight elevator built in 1989 was
revised in 2003 and then in 2007.
• East and West pillars: “Fives-Lille” hydraulic elevators were
installed in 1899, modernized in 1986 and 1987, and revised
in 1992, 1995 and 2005. In 2008, the major project of totally
replacing the West pillar elevators began, with the intention of
coming back to the original and simple functioning machines
imagined by Gustave Eiffel in collaboration with the Fives-Lille
company in 1899.
The public has an opportunity to discover the historical elevator
equipment in a guided visit during the yearly open house event
celebrating European Heritage. Enter into a true Jules Verne
universe, into the center of the Tower, where all those surprising
machines are in action.
• Between the the second and third floor: the “Edoux”
hydraulic elevator did not function in winter (the gel stopped
the machinery from working) and was dismounted in 1983.
The hydraulic pump that fed the machine with water is now on
display on the first floor of the Tower.
Two double-cabin electric elevators by Duolift-Otis were
installed in 1983, replaced by new ones in 1994 and 1995, and
then revised in 2007.
The elevators are vital to the monument and subject to some
harsh treatment. Their annual journeys combined are equal to
two and half times around the world or more than 103,000
kilometers. The cabins, the electrical and computer systems, along
with the historical machinery behind the elevators receive the
greatest care and maintenance: renovation work, repairs, parts
replaced and oiled. They are constantly checked by technicians,
who start them up early in the morning before the public arrives
and keep them under close surveillance whenever the Tower is
open to the public. Eiffel Tower elevator operators handle the
smooth flux of visitors.
The Eiffel Tower: Card 6
a subject of controversy
As is the case with many major architectural projects that today constitute part of France’s
cultural heritage, the Tower has suffered the slings and arrows of detractors. Protest well
predates the construction of such controversial structures as the Pompidou Center and the
Louvre Pyramid. But time alone always proves the final judge – and in the case of the Eiffel
Tower, the verdict has already been rendered. During construction, several personalities
protested violently. On February 14, 1887 Le Temps published a manifesto signed by
“personalities from the world of arts and letters”* railing against the construction of a 300-
meter tower on the Champs de Mars esplanade. Gustave Eiffel fought tooth and nail for his
project, but the temperature of the heated debate just kept rising. A number of persons did
later change their views and make amends. Sully Prudhomme, for example, expressed his
admiration as early as 1889. Coppée waxed lyrical on the subject, and the Tower inspired
Gounod to write a little “concerto in the clouds”.


The artists* protest
Letter published in Le Temps, February 14, 1887.
“We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects, passionate lovers
of the beauty, until now intact, of Paris, hereby protest with all
our might, with all our indignation, in the name of French taste
gone unrecognized, in the name of French art and history under
threat, against the construction, in the very heart of our capital,
of the useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower, that public spite, often
marked by good sense and a spirit of justice, has already baptized
the Tower of Babel.
Without becoming hotheaded or chauvinistic, we have the right
to loudly proclaim that Paris is a city without rival in the world.
On its streets, its widened boulevards, the length of its admirable
embankments, along its magnificent walks there will suddenly
appear the most noble monuments ever fashioned by human
genius. The soul of France, creator of masterpieces, shines from
this majestic flowering of stones. Italy, Germany, Flanders, so
justly proud of their artistic heritage, possess nothing comparable
to ours, and in every corner of the universe Paris calls forth
curiosity and admiration. Are we to let all that be debased? Will
the city of Paris thus continue to be associated with the strange
and venal imaginations of a machine-maker, bringing upon itself
dishonor and an ugliness that can never be corrected? Because
the Eiffel Tower, which even commercial-minded America does
not want, is – make no mistake – the dishonor of Paris. Everyone
feels it, everyone says it, everyone is profoundly distressed about
it, and we are but a weak echo of the general opinion, so rightly
alarmed. In the end, when foreigners come to our Exhibition,
they will cry out, astonished, ‘What?
This is the horror the French have found to give us an idea of the
taste they boast about?’
They will be right to mock us, because the Paris of sublime gothic
architecture, the Paris of Jean Goujon, of Germain Pilon, of Pujet, of
Rude, of Barye, etc., will have become the Paris of Monsieur Eiffel.
Moreover, all you need do to fully understand what we are
saying, is to imagine for a moment a dizzyingly ridiculous tower
dominating Paris, as well as a gigantic black factory chimney
completely crushing with its barbaric mass Notre Dame, the
Sainte-Chapelle, the Saint-Jacques tower, the Louvre, the Invalides’
dome, the Arc de Triomphe, all our monuments humiliated, all
our architecture belittled, and ultimately disappearing in this
staggering dream. And for twenty years, we will see stretching
out over the entire city, still quivering with genius from so many
centuries, we will see stretching out like a growing ink spot the
hateful shadow of the hateful column of bolted iron.
You, who love Paris so, who have made her so beautiful, who
have protected her so often from administrative devastation and
the vandalism of industrial companies – you once again have the
honor of defending her. We are leaving it to you to plead Paris’s
cause, knowing that you will bring to that task all the energy, all
the eloquence, that love for what is beautiful, what is great, what
is just, inspires in an artist such as yourself. And if our cry of alarm
is not heeded, if our reasoning is not heard, if Paris persists with
the idea of dishonoring Paris, we will at least, you and ourselves,
have voiced a protest to do us credit.”
* Among the noteworthy names in the long list of signatures are
those of the Paris Opera architect Charles Garnier and writers
François Coppée, Alexandre Dumas fils, Charles-Marie Leconte
de Lisle, Guy de Maupassant and Sully Prudhomme.
Gustave Eiffel’s reply
“I will tell you all that I think, and all that I hope. For my part, I believe
that the Tower will have its own beauty. Do people think that
because we are engineers, beauty plays no part in what we build,
that if we aim for the solid and lasting, that we don’t at the same
time do our utmost to achieve elegance? Are actual conditions
of strength not always compatible with the hidden conditions of
harmony? The first principle of architectural aesthetics is that the
essential lines of a monument should be determined by it fitting
perfectly into a setting. But what condition did I need to address
in the case of the tower? Resistance to wind. Well, I maintain that
the curves of the four groin vaults of the monument, based on
calculations, starting with the enormous and unused footing at
the base, are going to taper up to the summit, will give a great
impression of strength and beauty, because they will convey to
the eyes the boldness of the conception in its totality. Similarly,
the numerous empty spaces that are part of the plan, part of
the very elements that go into the construction, will bear strong
witness to the constant concern of not uselessly sacrificing
to violent thunderstorms surfaces that pose a danger to the
stability of the edifice. What’s more, there’s an attraction in
things colossal, a special charm to which theories of ordinary art
are hardly applicable. Will we maintain that it’s because of their
artistic value that the Pyramids have so fired the imagination of
men? After all, are they anything other than artificial hillocks? Yet
what visitor remains unmoved in their presence? Who has not
returned from them filled with an admiration that is irresistible?
And what is the source of this admiration, if not the immensity
of effort and the grandeur of the result?
The Tower will be the highest edifice ever raised by man – will it
not therefore be grandiose as well, in its way? Why would what
is admirable in Egypt become hideous and ridiculous in Paris? I’ve
sought an answer, and must confess have found none.”
Scientific and Card 7
technical applications
From the time of his project proposal in 1886, Gustave Eiffel knew that the Tower’s service to
science alone could protect it from its enemies and extend its life span. At the beginning it was
meant to last 20 years and then be destroyed! Eiffel therefore spelled out the uses he had in
mind: meteorological and astronomical observation, experimentation in physics, a strategic
observation post, a communications base for signaling, a beacon for electric light and wind
studies. He said: “It will be an observatory and a laboratory such as science has never had at
its disposal. That’s why, from Day 1, all our scientists have encouraged me with such strong
fellow feeling.” In fact from 1889 onward, the Eiffel Tower was used as a laboratory for scientific
measurements and experiments. Much scientific equipment was installed (barometers, wind
gauges, lightning conductors, etc.). Gustave Eiffel even built himself an office on the third floor
to carry out astronomy and physiology observations.
Why the Eiffel Tower is made of iron
What are the advantages of iron? Gustave Eiffel himself gives
the answer: “First of all, its resistance. From the viewpoint of
loads one or the other of these materials can support, we know
that for any given surface area, iron is ten times more resistant
than wood and 20 times more resistant than stone.” He points
out: “It’s above all in the large constructions that the metal’s
resistance makes it superior to other materials. The relative
lightness of metal constructions also allows for smaller supports
and foundations.” And he concludes: “To give just one example,
that of the Exhibition Tower, I astonished more than one person
who was worried about the load on the floor of the foundations,
by saying that the load wouldn’t be any greater than that of a
house in Paris.”
The scientific experiments
The day after the Tower was inaugurated, Gustave Eiffel installed
a meteorology lab on the third floor. He also had a passion for
aerodynamics and performed a series of observations on falling
bodies (dedicated equipment was installed from 1903 to 1905).
He then imagined “an automatic device sliding the length of a
stretched cable between the second level of the Tower and the
ground”. He had a small wind tunnel built at the foot of the tower.
From August to December 1909 he carried out five thousand
tests. In addition, Gustave Eiffel encouraged others to perform
experiments on the Tower: Foucault’s pendulum, the mercury
manometer, physiology studies and radio contact (1898).
Movement of the Tower top
The Tower sways slightly in the wind. During the storm of 1999,
it moved approximately 13 centimeters from its initial position.
But the Tower is also affected by heat. When the temperature is
high, that portion of the structure exposed to the sun expands
more than the portion in the shade. To “get out of the sun”, the
Tower can lean as much as 18 centimeters.
The history of Card 8
telecommunications
on the Eiffel Tower
The Tower hosted the first radiophonic experiments and played a crucial role in the beginnings of
French television. Gustave Eiffel greatly encouraged research into radio transmissions by allowing
the Tower to be used as a monumental antenna. In 1909, the Tower was saved from demolition
thanks to the launch of wireless telegraphy. The top of the Tower was modified over the years, to
accommodate an ever-growing number of antennas. Today, it is home to several dozen antennas of
all sorts, including a television mast that reaches a height of 324 meters. The first experiments in
television broadcasting from the Tower date from 1925 and the first regular broadcasts from 1935.
November 5, 1898
First wireless telegraph link spanning the four kilometers
between the Panthéon and the Eiffel Tower (Ernest Roger and
Eugène Ducretet).
December 15, 1903
Gustave Eiffel allows the Minister of War to place antennas on
the Tower, saying “I offer to take on all the costs that could result
from these experiments.”
January 21, 1904
The Eiffel Tower transmitter enters the history books when
the head of the Engineers’ Corp accepts Eiffel’s offer. Captain
Gustave Ferrié becomes the Tower’s second “great man”. The
military network is gradually established.
1905
Links between the Eiffel Tower and the fortified towns of eastern
France guaranteed in all weather.
1907-1908
A link is set up with Casablanca during the Morocco campaign. At
night the station is relayed by the cruiser, the Kléber, transmitting
directly to the Eiffel Tower.
1909
The Eiffel Tower’s “military radio-telegraph station” is completed.
After wooden barracks, an underground station is installed.
January 1909
First wireless telephone trials at the Eiffel Tower by Colin and
Jeance.





May 23, 1910
The Eiffel Tower serves the French Navy with the first regular
time signal transmission service. Signals could be heard 5,200
kilometers away at night, and half of that distance during the day.
In the daytime, the signals are picked up at Batoum, Georgia, and
by night at Glace Bay, Canada. Thanks to Commander Ferrié, it
becomes possible to set up an international time organization
to unify the way time is measured throughout the world and to
determine longitudes accurately.
1910
Link with dirigibles.
1911
Link with airplanes.
1914-1918
• The Eiffel Tower plays a key role during the war. The Marne
taxis. Links with the La Fayette station in the USA in 1917.
• Mata-Hari is arrested.
• Zeppelin alerts (Louis de Broglie works from the Eiffel Tower).
November 10, 1918
The Tower picks up the following message: “The German
command agrees to the conditions of the Armistice that are
imposed on it.”
1921
Lucien and Sacha Guitry carry out the first experiment with a
radio broadcast transmitted by the Tower.
1922
A temporary studio is set up in the Tower’s North pillar.
1925
• Maurice Privat launches the “Spoken Newspaper”.
• The first television tests carried out by Édouard Belin at the
Eiffel Tower mark the beginning of a new – and brilliant – career
for the Tower.
1929
Three times a day, the Tower broadcasts the observations of 350
weather stations between Europe, North Africa and the Atlantic
Ocean (from Iceland to Cape Verde).
April 26, 1935
First television broadcast. From 60 lines at the outset, the number
rose to 441 lines in 1945.
1953
The beginning of Eurovision: crowning of Queen Elizabeth II of
England.
1957
A television antenna is placed at the top of the monument. The
Tower “grows” from 300 to 318.70 meters.
1964
To celebrate the Tower’s 75th anniversary, mountaineers climb
to the top and Eurovision broadcasts the exploit.
1997
Launch of the Eiffel Tower Internet site (www.tour-eiffel.fr and
www.eiffel-tower.com).
2000
After work carried out by Télédiffusion de France (TDF) on the
UHF antenna the Tower “grows” again, this time from 318.70 to
324 meters.
2005
The first broadcasts of digital terrestrial television in Paris
originated from the transmitter on the Eiffel Tower.
Key figures
• Number of analogical TV stations: 6
• Number of free digital TV stations: 18
• Number of pay digital TV stations: 30
• Number of radio stations: 31
• Number of antennas: 120
Feats and exploits Card 9
on the Tower
The Eiffel Tower has inspired numerous sporting, artistic and scientific feats, but has also been
witness to some incredible stunts and challenges. Its history is full of feats and exploits.
1889
• Le Figaro sets up a printing press on the second floor and
produces its daily paper on site. Visitors buying their newspaper
can have their name inscribed on their copy to “certify” that they
climbed the Tower.
• On September 11, Gustave Eiffel welcomes Thomas Edison and
his phonographs on the first floor. The men dine together.
1901
On several occasions Santos-Dumont sets off from Saint-Cloud,
just to the west of Paris, in his dirigible and flies past the Eiffel
Tower to win a prize.
1905
Le Sport organizes a championship race up the stairs to the first
floor, won by Forestier in 3 minutes, 12 seconds. The prize: a
bike.
1909
On October 18, the Count of Lambert flies over Paris and around
the Eiffel Tower for the first time in the history of aviation. His
aircraft is a “Wright”, made of wood and canvas.
In Eiffel’s aerodynamics laboratory at the foot of the Tower, the
first research is carried out on the plane wing sections used
by Wright, Voisin and Farmann, using the vertical drop from the
second floor.
1912
• “Birdman”, one Reichelt, a tailor based in Longjumeau, throws
himself off the first floor with his handmade parachute and
crashes to the ground at the feet of the press.
• An aviation enthusiast, Gustave Eiffel builds the first return
flow wind tunnel, as a result of numerous plans and drawings. The
“Engineer of the Universe” conducted over 5,000 experiments
on the resistance of wings and propellers to air.
1923
The journalist Pierre Labric, future Mayor of Montmartre, cycles
from the first floor down to the ground on his bike, and without
authorization. The descent was given substantial coverage. The
cup won by the “hero” is currently to be found in the cellars of
the Eiffel Tower.
1926
The aviator Léon Collot is killed flying under the Eiffel Tower.
Blinded by the sun, he hits the television antennas.
1934
Jacopozzi installs a clock and a thermometer along the Tower.
Red lamps represent mercury.
1939
For the Tower’s 50th anniversary, high mass is celebrated on
the first floor in the presence of the Archbishop of Paris, Mgr.
Chaptal.
1944
On August 24, a three-colored flag, the symbol of liberated Paris,
is raised to the top of the Tower. The flag is made from three
bedsheets sewn together.
1948
Bouglione, of the eponymous circus, takes one his “inmates” for a
little promenade. At 85, the oldest elephant in the world cannot
make it further than the first floor.
1964
To celebrate the Tower’s 75th anniversary, mountaineers Guido
Magnone and René Desmaison climb the Tower, and the event is
broadcast by Eurovision.
1983
• Charles Coutard and Joël Descuns ride up and down the Tower
on their motocross bikes.
• An international auction is held in the Gustave Eiffel room on
the first floor to sell parts of the spiral staircase that linked the
second and third floors – with 12 television channels attending.
1984
Two Britons, Amanda Tucker and Mike MacCarthy, parachutejump
from the third floor without permission.
1987
A.J. Hackett, a New Zealander, bungy-jumps from the second floor.
1989
For the centenary of the Eiffel Tower, the tightrope walker
Philippe Petit “walks” across the 700 meters that separate the
Palais de Chaillot from the Tower.
1995
Triathlete Yves Lossouarn breaks the record for climbing the
Tower stairs on foot in 8 minutes and 51 seconds. Seventyfive
athletes take part in the race, organized for a special Arte
television evening.
1997
• A professional British stuntman parachute-jumps from the first
floor of the Eiffel Tower.
• 12th World Youth Days: the Pope pays a tribute to the Eiffel
Tower in front of 300,000 pilgrims gathered on the Champ-de-
Mars to meditate.
• To celebrate Halloween, an extraordinary vegetable garden
containing 85 tons of pumpkins is installed in the Trocadéro
gardens.
1998
• Hugues Richard breaks the record for climbing the Eiffel Tower
stairs from the ground floor to the second floor on a mountainbike.
• For the Football World Cup, nearly 700 journalists and 120
television stations from all over the world are welcomed to the
Eiffel Tower, in the reception pavilion set up for the occasion on
the ground floor. Throughout the World Cup, a camera set up
on the roof of the Unesco building films the Eiffel Tower around
the clock. The footage is used as the reference for televisions the
world over.
• The “Three Tenors” concert at the foot of the Eiffel Tower:
José Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti sing on
the Champ-de-Mars for an audience of 200,000 people, with the
illuminated Eiffel Tower as a backdrop.
1999
A golf tournament is held in Paris for the first time with the first
and last hole under the Eiffel Tower.
2000
• As part of the Firemen’s World Games, the most prestigious
competition – climbing stairs from the ground to the first floor
of the building – is held at the Eiffel Tower.
• The Eiffel Tower is decked out for the Europe Days on May 9.
European flags are raised on the first floor, on the gallery roof.
• The set of a French fund-raising telethon is installed on the
Champ-de-Mars. The Eiffel Tower is in the background throughout
the many hours during which the program is broadcast live on
the France 2 channel.
• The Orchestre de Paris and the Boston Symphonic Orchestra
conducted by Seiji Ozawa give a free concert on the Champde-
Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower, which is illuminated for the
occasion.
• Johnny Hallyday gives a free concert at the foot of the Eiffel
Tower for an audience of 600,000 people. Pyrotechnics and a
light show enhance the Tower for the occasion.
2001
• The Spaniard Aitor Sarasua Zumeta smashes the record
previously set by Hugues Richard for climbing the tower on a
mountain-bike.
• As part of an exhibition on the Champ-de-Mars organized by
the French land army, 10 climbers of the Paris Fire Brigade climb
up to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower and abseil down from
the first floor.
2002
• Hugues Richard breaks his own record in 1998 of climbing the
Tower on his mountain-bike.
• The Eiffel Tower participates in the first “Nuit Blanche”
organized by Paris City Hall on October 5. Sophie Calle, at the
top of the monument all night, welcomes visitors who come
to tell her stories. The Eiffel Tower welcomes 18,425 people
between 6 pm and 7 am.
• The Tower welcomes its 200 millionth visitor since it opened in
1889. To celebrate the event, an exceptional evening is organized
on the first floor. All the tourism professionals and partners who
contributed to the success are invited, and more than 1,200 of
them accept.
• An immense heart made from 5,000 vine stocks painted pink
is placed at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. The event is held in aid of
the people affected by the explosion at the AZF plant in Toulouse
in September 2001.
2003
• The Eiffel Tower is decked out in colors representing Paris’s
candidature to host the Olympic Games of 2012.
• The First International Meetings for Defense are held on the
Champ-de-Mars. The Paris Fire Brigade puts on a show around
the Eiffel Tower by abseiling from the first floor.
• Centenary of the Tour de France: the prologue departs from
the foot of the Eiffel Tower.
• For the end-of-year festivities, a forest of fir trees is planted
under the Eiffel Tower. A giant hopscotch game is installed on the
first floor.
2004
• The VTT champion, Xavier Casas from Andorra, beats his own
record for climbing the steps on a VTT: 1,300 steps! He obtained
an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for this feat.
• French champion ice skaters, Sarah Abitbol & Stéphane
Bernadis, inaugurate the 200-square-meter skating rink installed
on the first floor of the Tower. A real success, the rink welcomed
more than a thousand skaters each day.
2005
On May 18, the athlete Jerome Sue descended the 345 steps
from the first floor to the ground floor in a wheel chair.
2006
• A roller skating rink was set up on the first floor from
November 18 to 20. Taïg Khris, twice world champion in the
sport, amazed the amateurs with his demonstrations.
• Yoggi, young French champion of the monocycle, went up the
stairs to the second floor in 22 minutes without setting foot on
the ground.
2007
• From June 1 to 10, the Tower welcomed an under-water diving
pool 240-square-meters in size installed at the foot of the Tower
allowing 3,000 visitors to get a scuba diving initiation.
• At the end of the year, visitors were able to put on snowshoes
and follow a 300-meter trail of snow around the first floor of the
monument. For this celebration of the Polar Year, a special icy bar
opened and a 6-meter ice model of the Eiffel Tower decorated
the first floor.
The Eiffel Tower Card 10
and artists
If the Tower began its life as an attraction, in the 1920s it became a symbol of modernity and
the avant-garde. Little by little its image became associated with Paris, to the point where
it became the city’s symbol around the world. In a just twist of fate, poets, painters, singers,
choreographers, filmmakers and photographers regularly pay homage.
Films
• 1897 - “Panorama pendant l’ascension de la Tour Eiffel” by
Louis Lumière and “Images de L’Exposition 1900” by Georges
Meliès
• 1905 - “La course à la perruque” by Georges Hatot
• 1923 - “Paris qui dort” by René Clair
• 1924 - “La cité foudroyée” by Luitz Morat
• 1927 - “La Tour” by René Clair (documentary) and “Mystères
de la Tour Eiffel” by Julien Duvivier
• 1930 - “La fin du monde” by Abel Gance
• 1939 - “La Tour Eiffel” by Jean Denis
• 1942 - “Monsieur la souris” by Georges Lacombe
• 1945 - “À l’assaut de la Tour Eiffel” by Alain Pol
• 1948 - “The Man on the Eiffel Tower” by Burgess Meredith
• 1951 - “The Lavender Hill Mob” by Charles Crichton
• 1952 - “Bonjour Paris” by Jean Image (cartoon)
• 1955 - “Marguerite de la nuit” by Claude Autant-Lara
• 1956 - “Le chanteur de Mexico” by Richard Pottier
• 1959 - “Tour Eiffel idylle” by Louis Cuny
• 1960 - “Zazie dans le métro” by Louis Malle
• 1963 - “Les plus belles escroqueries du monde-Paris” de
Claude Chabrol.
• 1965 - “La grande course autour du monde” de B. Edwards.
• 1966 - “Un idiot à Paris” by S. Korber
• 1968 - “Paris jamais vu” by Albert Lamorisse (documentary)
• 1980 - “Les uns et les autres” by Claude Lelouch and
“Superman II” by Richard Lester
• 1981 - “Condorman” by Charles Jarrott (Walt Disney) and
“La Tour Eiffel en otage” by Claudio Guzman
• 1982 - “Le ruffian” by José Giovanni
• 1984 - “Rive droite – rive gauche” by Philippe Labro and “A
View to a Kill” by John Glen
• 1994 - “Un indien dans la ville” by H. Palud
• 1998 - “An American werewolf” by Anthony Waller
• 2000 - “Epouse-moi” by Harriet Marin
• 2003 - “Le Divorce” by James Ivory
• 2003 - “Il fuggiasco” (The Fugitive) by Andrea Manni
• 2004 - “Le démon de Midi” (The Demon Stirs) by Marie-
Pascale Osterrieth
• 2005 - “Angel-A” by Luc Besson
• 2005 - “The Da Vinci Code” by Ron Howard
• 2006 - “La légende vraie de la Tour Eiffel” (TV) by Simon
Brook
• 2007 - “Rush Hours 3” by Brett Rattner
Paintings
• 1888 - Georges Seurat: “La Tour Eiffel” (Fine Arts Museum of
San Francisco)
• 1889 - Jean Beraud: “Entrée de l’Exposition Universelle”
(Musée Carnavalet in Paris)
• 1890 - Le Douanier Rousseau: “Moi-même, portrait paysage”
(Narodni Galerie in Prague)
• 1890 - Paul Signac: “Seine Grenelle” (Private collection)
• 1911 - Robert Delaunay: “The Red Tower” (Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum in New York)
• 1910/1912 - Robert Delaunay: “La ville de Paris” (MNAM -
Centre G. Pompidou in Paris)
• 1913 - Marc Chagall: “Paris Through the Window” (Solomon
R. Guggenheim Museum in New York)
• 1926 - Romaine Brooks: “Jean Cocteau” (MNAM - Centre G.
Pompidou in Paris)
• 1954 - Marc Chagall: “Champ-de-Mars” (Essen, Museum
Folkwang)
• 1954 - Nicolas de Staël: “La Tour Eiffel” (Musée de Troyes) And
then there’s Raoul Dufy, Gino Severini, Utrillo, Bernard Buffet, Pol
Bury, Roger Lersy…
Poets and writers
Blaise Cendrars, Guillaume Apollinaire, Aragon, Raymond
Queneau, Jean Cocteau, Jean Giraudoux, Le Corbusier, François
Coppée, Dino Buzzati, Guy de Maupassant…
Blaise Cendrars – “Tower” (1913)
You are all
Tower
Ancient god
Modern beast
Solar spectrum
Subject of my poem
Tower
World tower
Tower in movement
(Du monde entier) (1912-1924 NRF).
Translated by Tony Baker
Guillaume Apollinaire – “Zone”
At last you are tired of this ancient world
O shepherdess Eiffel Tower, the flock of bridges
bleats this morning
You’re fed up with living in Greek and Roman antiquity . . .
Translated by the American scholar and critic Roger Shattuck
Jean Giraudoux – “Prayer on the Eiffel Tower”
The smallest wind guides me. Rather than walk back along the
Seine, I followed its current. Patrols were escorting this poet,
who was going to work – and there was the Eiffel Tower! My
God, what faith its engineer had in universal gravity! Blessed
Virgin, if the theory of the law of gravity were to prove but a
fabrication, even for a quarter of a second, what magnificent
rubble! This is what can be erected with theories. Here is the
string of iron that the wizard has thrown up to the heavens,
which he invites his friends to climb…I knew Eiffel, I am
climbing…
Translated by Randall Holden
Jean Cocteau
…Around the charming neck, Eiffel,
the beautiful giraffe in lace,
meeting place of unknown travelling pigeons,
leaves below the eloquent blue falling
by the water…
the paver’s song
Translated by Gillian O’Meara
Raymond Queneau - “The Skeleton Tower”
Eiffel Tower of bones
Catacombs in the air
Staircased tibias
And at three hundred meters above the ground
The antenna skull
That speaks only to listen
(Courir les rues - NRF)
Guy de Maupassant – “Lassitude”
I left Paris and even France, because the Eiffel Tower ended up
boring me excessively. Not only did one see it everywhere but
one found it everywhere, made from every material known
to man, on display in every window; an inevitable, agonizing
nightmare.
La vie errante (1890)
Translated by Randall Holden


Singers
• Michel Emer: “Paris, mais c’est la Tour Eiffel…”
• Charles Trénet: “Y’a d’la joie, la Tour Eiffel part en balade…”
• Léo Ferré: “Paris portait sa grande croix…”
• Jacques Dutronc: “La Tour Eiffel a froid aux pieds…”
• Pascal Obispo: “Je suis tombé pour elle…”
Choreographers
“Les mariés de la Tour Eiffel” by Jean Cocteau was performed
for the first time the evening of June 18, 1921, at the Théâtre
des Champs-Élysées, by the Swedish ballet company of Rolf
de Maré. Music by Germaine Tailleferre, Georges Auric, Arthur
Honegger, Darius Millaud and François Poulenc, choreography
by Jean Cocteau, sets by Irène Lagut, costumes and masques by
Jean Hugo.
…and the advertisers
For many years the Eiffel Tower has been used in advertising.
On the very steeple of the Tower, between 1925 and 1936,
Citroën appeared in luminous letters. Since then, Air France, La
Samaritaine, Yves Saint Laurent, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Nina Ricci,
Alain Afflelou and Campari have been some of the best known
brands to use the icon.
Card 11
Illuminations
Because of its size and structure, the Eiffel Tower has inspired extremely sophisticated and
original lighting innovations. By turns a sparkler, a Parisian beacon, an advertising sign, a torch,
a Christmas tree, a beauty bathed in red and a fireworks theatre, the Tower has a history that
is closely linked with the history of lighting. Spectaculars, bedazzlements, memories…the very
night it was inaugurated, ten thousand gaslights enhanced the gown of the Iron Lady!
1889
Two projectors on rails installed on the top floor of the Tower
light the monuments of Paris. Its continuous beacon of bluewhite-
red, which would periodically emit blazes of light, is the
most powerful in the world. During the Universal Exhibition, the
Tower is lit every night with the aid of gaslights placed in balls
of opaline.
1900
The Tower’s lighting goes entirely electric: 5,000 bulbs delineate
its sides in straight lines.
1907
A giant clock 6-meter high, installed on the second floor, tells the
time in luminous numbers.
1925-1936
André Citroën, quite taken with the idea of a lightshow
spectacular, makes FF500,000 available to Fernand Jacopozzi. A
device involving 250,000 bulbs of different colors is installed on
the monument. The first show takes place on July 4, 1925. The
name Citroën on three sides of the Tower is visible at a distance
of 40 kilometers. The shows, judged too costly at nearly a million
francs, stop in 1936.
1933
Citroën presents Parisians with a gift clock with a face 15
meters in diameter. The hands are multicolored rays that light in
succession to tell the time.
1937
The Arts and Techniques Exhibition. André Granet builds under
the frame of the first floor platform a gigantic chandelier with
10 kilometers of fluorescent tubes in various colors. Thirty
searchlights trained on the sky dress the Tower in white light
while its lace of iron throws off reflections in gold, blue and
red. Each evening the levels are transformed into fountains of
fire. After the 1914-1918 war, the Tower becomes a beacon for
aircraft in Paris (until 1974).
May 1958
1,290 projectors are installed in several holes dug into the
Champ-de-Mars (used until December 31, 1985) to light the
monument.
1978
For Christmas, a tree of light decorates the Tower with 30,000
bulbs.
1985
A new device to light the Eiffel Tower takes its inaugural bow on
Decembre 31, 1985. Designed by Pierre Bideau, lighting engineer,
the device is the crowning element of a restoration program
for the monument approved by the city of Paris in 1980. 336
projectors (1,000W, 400W, 150W, directing beams of light from
the bottom toward the top) illuminate the Eiffel Tower from the
interior of its structures.
Replacing the 1,290 used since 1958, the new projectors are
installed in banks of 4 to 7 units. All are equipped with highpressure
sodium lamps yellow-orange in color (except for eight
projectors containing incandescent lamps placed at the top).
Lighting the projectors takes less than 10 minutes. It can be done
manually or using a dusk switch that is protected against risks of
untimely activation.
The power level built into the device is 320 kW (it had been
620 kW previously). The annual consumption is 680,000 kWh.
The high-pressure sodium lamps (with a life of 6,000 hours)
initially furnished by Philips and Mazda are replaced every three
years. The total cost of installing the device was FF4 million, and
annual use runs to FF600,000.
This source of illumination, unanimously deemed a success
worldwide, served as the point of departure for rethinking night
illumination of monuments in Paris and other major French
cities.
April 5,1997
At midnight, the Mayor of Paris activates a countdown in light
of “1,000 days to the year 2000”. Situated 100 meters from
the ground on the side of the monument facing Trocadéro, the
“counter” is illuminated day and night, changing the number daily
at midnight. It is 33 meters high and 12 meters wide, weighs
50 tons, and is composed of 1,342 projectors.
December 31, 1999
The Eiffel Tower signals the Year 2000. At midnight there begins a
veritable dance of fire lasting 3 minutes 30 seconds, a pyrotechnical
ballet, the likes of which have never been seen. On this occasion
the sparkling effect conceived by Pierre Bideau is revealed in all
its glory, and then the Eiffel Tower sparkles with 20,000 lights
every night for 10 minutes to mark each hour while its new
beacon sweeps Paris. The event is an international success and
the images are broadcast all over the world.
2000
All year long the light counter displays “Year 2000”.
December 31, 2000
The Eiffel Tower’s glitter takes on a blue hue for several nights to
celebrate entry into the new millennium.
July 14, 2001
After 18 months the glittering’ effect is turned off. Planned initially
to last 12 months but extended due to its resounding success,
the equipment has now given all it can give.
June 21, 2003
The Eiffel Tower gets the glitter back for ten years on the
occasion of Paris’s renowned Fête de la Musique. Mayor Bertrand
Delanoë throws the switch, and the event is broadcast live from
the Champ-de-Mars on France 2 television. The plan is the same
as it was in 2000: 10 minutes at the beginning of each hour from
nightfall to 2 am in the summer (1 am in winter).
January 24, 2004
The Eiffel Tower is lit in red. The occasion is the France-China
Cultural Exchange Program: for the first time since its creation,
the Tower is bathed in red January 24-29 to mark the Chinese
New Year.
Thanks to clever use of external projectors, the monument is
bathed in a scarlet symbol of happiness, celebration, joy and
prosperity. The switch is thrown January 24 during a lighting
ceremony at the Place Jacques Rueff in the Champ-de-Mars,
attended by the French and Chinese Ministers of Culture and
the Mayors of Paris and Beijing.
2004
The 336 Philips projectors that give the Eiffel Tower its golden
look are replaced.
2006
On may 8 at midnight, the Eiffel Tower lit up in blue in celebration
of the 20th edition of Europe Day.
2007
• February 1, between 7:55 and 8pm, the Tower shut off its
lights in respect to “Turn off Your Lights - France in the Dark
for 5 Minutes”, an energy-saving operation showing France’s
dedication to sustainable development. The Tower repeated the
operation on October 22.
• The evening of September 6, Mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoë
and the Presidents of the International Rugby Board and France’s
Rugby Federation unveiled the special lighting for the World
Rugby Cup, which lasted from September 7 to October 20. The
Tower went green from the ground up to the second floor in
resonance with the color of the playing field. Also adorning the
Tower was a huge illuminated goal with a 85-meter long crossbeam
and a huge rugby ball 13 meters long attached to the
second floor. Finally a giant 120-square-meter screen was made
available for the public to watch the games.
Painting Card 12
the Eiffel Tower
To protect the Iron Lady’s surface, the Eiffel Tower is covered in paint. In fact, the stylish Lady’s
attentiveness to color coordination has resulted in the need for three different shades of paint
to go with the hues of the Parisian sky – darkest at the bottom, lightest at the top.
The different coats of paint
• During the construction – mainly in puddle iron with very
low carbon content - the Eiffel Tower was given its first coat
of paint in red iron ocher. Mr. Nourisson then had the second
and third coats applied in linseed oil. Painting was completed in
March 1889.
• In May 1889, a glazed fourth coat was applied by the same
contractor, Mr. Nourrisson; its reddish-brown color shaded off
gradually from the base to the top. Guaranteed for one year, this
one coat alone cost 60,000 gold francs.
• In 1892, the paint job received its first cleaning. The contractor
was Mr. Rivière. The previous coat was washed and a new coat of
ocher-yellow paint applied. The job cost 57,000 gold francs, but
with maintenance guaranteed for five years.
• In 1899, it was decided that the Eiffel Tower would be repainted
every seven years.
• Since 1988, climbers with video cameras have been monitoring
the condition of the paint in those areas most difficult to
access.
• December 2001 saw the beginning of the 18th painting
of the Eiffel Tower since its construction. For the first time, a
new lead-free paint was used, in the interests of protecting the
environment. A new timetable was adopted.

A specific color
Currently, the color on display is a specific three-tone variation of
bronze, with the lightest tone at the top. It was adopted in 1968
after several color changes ranging from the original reddishbrown
to ocher-yellow. The three different shades today ensure
a perfectly hued complement to the color of the Paris sky.
Key figures behind the painting
of the Eiffel Tower
• Weight of paint: approximately 60 tons
• Time required: 15 to 18 months
• Frequency required: the Tower is entirely re-painted every
7 years. The 19th painting is scheduled to begin autumn 2008 and
finish at the beginning of the year 2010.
• 25 painters
• Cost of the 18th painting in 2001: 3 million euros
Eiffel Tower Card 13
Restaurants
The history behind the Eiffel Tower restaurants is inseparable from the “Great Moments”
in history from the monument’s opening to the public in 1889. The Tower offers its visitors
breathtaking seating overlooking Paris: a delight for the eyes and the taste buds. Today a range
of restaurants cater to the different needs and tastes, from snack shops to gourmet cooking.
Food lovers meet
on the first floor
For the Universal Exhibition of 1889, four majestic wooden
pavilions designed by Stephen Sauvestre decked the platform
on the first floor. Each restaurant could seat 500 persons. The
kitchens were located under the platform, relying on gas lights,
until 1900.
• River Seine West side: A bar dubbed “Flamand” offered
Alsatian cooking and the waitresses wore regional clothing. It
was then transformed into a very popular theater. During the
Exhibition of 1900, it did become a short-lived restaurant again,
this time with a Dutch touch. The theatre resumed its activities
up until war broke out in 1914.
• Between the East and North pillars: A typical Russian
restaurant welcomed visitors.
• In step with the period: Visitors could choose to stop into
the English-American bar located between the South and West
pillars.
• Champ-de-Mars East side: Visitors were offered French
fare at Brébant, considered a chic restaurant.
These four establishments were demolished for the International
Exposition in 1937, which led to a complete overhaul of the
Tower’s first floor. Only two restaurants were built, one where
last stood the Russian restaurant and the other filled the spot
held by the previous Dutch restaurant. Architect Auguste Granet,
who married the grand-daughter of Gustave Eiffel, headed the
1930s-style construction.
In the beginning of the 80s, these restaurants were replaced
when the Tower underwent major renovations. The “La Belle
France” and “Le Parisien” became the two restaurants on the
Eiffel Tower not to be missed. In 1996, they formed one huge
brasserie decorated by Slavik & Loup under the theme of hot-air
balloons, paying homage to the view. It was named Altitude 95,
referring to the fact that it is located 95 meters above sea level.
To be completely redone end of 2008, it is expected to re-open
to the public beginning of 2009.
Gourmet cuisine 120 meters
above the capital
By 1983, the construction of the Jules Verne restaurant on the
second floor was finished, paying homage to the literary master
and spokesperson of scientific and industrial progress inspiring
everyone’s lives. Chef Alain Reix oversaw the kitchens, and
customers had privileged access via the South pillar elevator
reserved exclusively for use by the restaurant.
On December 22, 2007, following four months of renovations -
the Jules Verne was redesigned by Patrick Jouin - it opened its
doors to the public, with the renowned Alain Ducasse helming
the cuisine.
The Eiffel Tower Card 14
behind the scenes
The Eiffel Tower is open 365 days a year. So that nearly 7 million visitors can be welcomed in the
best conditions, operations behind the scenes resemble those in a well-oiled industrial plant.
Consumption
• Electricity consumption: 7.8 million kWh per year, the
equivalent of a village of some 100 homes, including 580,000
kWh for the illuminations. The French electricity utility EDF
provides the Tower with electricity at 20 kW. In 2007, the Eiffel
Tower reduced its consumption of electricity by 40%.
• The Tower is equipped with 19 different transformers. In case
of a breakdown, three 1600 kW generators automatically take
over.
• More than 100 different models of lamp, i.e 10,000 bulbs light
the Tower; 20,000 are needed when the Tower sparkles at night.
Electricians replace the bulbs regularly, a job that often requires
scaling the Tower.
• Over 80 kilometers of electric cables cover the entire
structure.
• 60,000 m3 of drinking water and 705,000 kWh of heating and
air conditioning are also required every year.
• Another surprising consumption figure is the 2 tons of paper
used every year to print the tickets for visitors. The Eiffel Tower
is the world’s most visited entrance-paying monument.
Cleaning
Specialist teams ensure the daily cleaning of the Tower. Every
year, they use:
• 4 tons of dusters and cleaning cloths,
• 10,000 doses of a variety of cleaning products,
• 400 liters of detergents,
• 25,000 bin bags.
Security and surveillance
A security post monitors the Tower and its visitors around the
clock, thanks to over 100 cameras – over one-third of which are
infrared for nighttime surveillance – positioned throughout the
monument.
To prevent fire, the monument is equipped with a 800-point
surveillance system, a whole network of sprinklers, and over 150
extinguishers of all sorts. Fire hydrants on the first two floors
are fed by a water pipe that starts on the ground, while those on
the top floor are supplied from pressurized water tanks.
Jobs in the Tower
The people who work for the Eiffel Tower operating company,
Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, carry out a variety of jobs.
The reception staff, all multilingual, guide and inform visitors who
come from all over the world. Meanwhile, technical jobs involve
many different professions: electricians, mechanics, plumbers,
painters, locksmiths, computer technicians, joiners, etc.
But the Tower also has shops with sales staff, photographers,
a post office and its employees, restaurants and their waiters,
maîtres d’hôtel, cooks, security staff, cleaning and maintenance
teams, office staff, etc.
Card 15
Visitors
In 2003, the Tower celebrated the fact that it has welcomed over 200 million visitors in
114 years. Royalty, stars, tourists, international celebrities, strollers – these
“Eiffel Tower citizens” all form part of the history of one of the capital’s most astounding jewels.
As with the Pyramids, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Acropolis, the Coliseum and the Statue of
Liberty, the Eiffel Tower stirs the curiosity and evokes admiration.
Since 1998, over 6 million people have visited the monument each year!
The Iron Lady is receiving!
1889
Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales are
the first crowned heads to ascend the monument. Many others
follow in their footsteps: Oscar II of Sweden, George I of Greece,
Leopold II of Belgium, Japan’s royal family, the czarevitch, the Shah
of Iran, the King of Portugal and the Egyptian princes.
The year it opens, the Eiffel Tower attracts high society.
1889
Thomas Edison demonstrates his phonograph at the Eiffel Tower.
Sarah Bernhardt puts in quite an appearance.
1900
Archduke Charles Ferdinand of Austria is delighted by the speed
of the elevators and the marvelous terrace on the second
floor…
1921
The future Emperor of Japan takes a walk on the Eiffel Tower
during his first visit to Europe. He is 20 years old.
1939
A gala dinner to mark the 50th anniversary of the monument
brings together the Duke of Windsor and the Ambassadors of
Spain and Poland.
1953
The Tower receives its 25-millionth visitor, who wins an
automobile.
1962
• Edith Piaf sings on the Tower during a gala to launch the film
“The Longest Day” by D. Zanuck.
• In August, President Dwight Eisenhower comes with his wife
and grandchildren.
1963
In September, Yuri Gagarin, the first cosmonaut, invited to France
by General de Gaulle, pays an informal visit.
1964
In May, the Tower reaches the age of 75. Maurice Chevalier and
74 other Parisians born in 1889 celebrate their birthday on the
monument.
1966
Charles Aznavour and Georges Brassens sing on the Tower to
mark the launch of the world campaign against hunger.
1968
Georges Pompidou, Prime Minister, attends a ministerial press
lunch.
1970
Valéry Giscard d’Estaing receives an African delegation on the
Tower.
1982
Jacques Chirac, Mayor of Paris, inaugurates the new pavilion on
the first floor.
1983
• Mireille Mathieu is hostess to the 100-millionth visitor to the
Tower.
• In June, Alexis Weissenberg gives a piano recital on the first
floor.
1985
• In June, from the Eiffel Tower, Rajiv Gandhi and François
Mitterrand watch a show given by the MELA intercultural festival
to celebrate the Year of India in France.
• In September, three astronauts from the space shuttle
Discovery (D. Brandenstein, J.O. Creighton and L. Shamon), in
France on official invitation, visit the Eiffel Tower.
1993
The 150-millionth visitor.
1997
• In April, Queen Sirikit of Thailand, accompanied by Madame
Bernadette Chirac, wife of the President of the French Republic,
inaugurates the “Thailand, treasures of artisans” exhibition,
located on the first floor. The event is chosen by Thailand to
close the Jubilee festivities of King Bhumibol, celebrating 50 years
of reign.
• In May, Madame Chirac gives a press conference in the Gustave
Eiffel room on the takings of the “small coins campaign” alongside
the campaign’s spokesman, judo champion David Douillet.
• In June, French astronaut Claudie André-Deshays and the
Russian crew of the Cassiopée mission, back from the Mir space
station, are received at the Eiffel Tower. (French astronauts often
come to the monument, and have been known to take tiny Eiffel
Towers with them on their missions.)
• In October, it’s astronaut Jean-Loup Chrétien’s turn to be
received at the Tower, accompanied by the crew members of the
American shuttle Atlantis.
1998
Michel Platini is received at the Eiffel Tower, 100 days before the
World Cup.
1999
Three Nobel Prize Winners are invited to the Eiffel Tower on the
invitation of Unesco.
2000
• Bill Cody Garlow, the great grandson of Buffalo Bill, visits the
Eiffel Tower, as his grandfather had 111 years earlier.
• Ludmila Poutine, wife of the Russian President, pays her first
visit to the Eiffel Tower and has a photo session on the third
floor.
2001
A visit from Mr. Robert Kotcharian, President of the Armenian
Republic.
2002
Officers of the Fire Department of New York, heroes of the
September 11, 2001 attacks on New York, visit the monument.
Private visit from Boris Yeltsin, former President of Russia.
2004
The President of China, Hu Jintao, accompanied by his wife, pays
a visit to the Eiffel Tower. With him is France’s President Jacques
Chirac and Madame Bernadette Chirac. The four dine in the Jules
Verne restaurant on the Tower’s second floor.
2006
• Actors Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker were filmed on location
at the Tower, performing some spectacular scenes from the film
“Rush Hour 3”.
• Private visit by the American singer Michael Jackson.
2007
• Private visit by American actor Pierce Brosnan.
Card 16
Exhibitions
Exhibitions at the Eiffel Tower
• 1982 - “Lovers of the Eiffel Tower”
• 1984 - “The City of Paris: Its Museums and Their Patrons”
• 1985 - “The Eiffel Tower Welcomes Space”
• 1986 - “Hungary and the Eiffel Tower” and “New Edition of the
years 1886-1887: Illustrations and the inauguration of the exhibit
Les Années 1886-1887”
• 1988 - “The State of Invention, during the times of Gustave
Eiffel”
• 1990 - “Imagine the Eiffel Tower”
• 1991 - “Towers of the World, from Babel to our time”
• 1992 - “Visions of Europe”: the Eiffel Tower celebrates Europe
by presenting the works – paintings, sculptures and photographs
– of 50 artists from 30 European capitals.
• 1993 - “World Encounters”
• 1994 - “The Unique and Manifold Tower”. A major postcard
competition is organized for the occasion. Among the oldest cards
is a “Libonis” by the eponymous engraver, postmarked August 21,
1889, the earliest of any card depicting the Eiffel Tower.
• 1995 - “The Eiffel Tower and the Advent of French Cinema
1889-1929”
• 1996 - “The Story of Iron”
• 1997 - A tribute to the 50th anniversary of the French Polar
Expeditions, an ice floe setting – with tracked vehicle, sleigh,
explorers and even penguins – is installed on the first floor
platform. The installation is opened by the President of the
Republic Jacques Chirac.
• 1998 - “Before the Year 2000 - Jules Verne: Visionary of
Unknown Worlds”: the “From earth to the moon” shell is
reproduced on the first floor and the elevator machinery
becomes the Nautilus gangways. A giant portrait of Jules Verne,
made from aluminum pellets mounted on to a 300 m2 net
weighing 2.1 tons, was lifted into position between the first and
second floors.
• 1999 - “Craziness and creativity”: this exhibition presented on
the first floor platform shows the “craziest” projects that have
marked the life of the Eiffel Tower.
• 2000 - “Siüdmak: Fantasy Universe”: the Polish painter Siudmak
shows some 40 of his works in the Ferrié Pavilion.
• 2000-2004 - “The Eiffel Tower in Celebration”: this exhibition
set up in the Ferrié Room, traces all the exceptional events
celebrated by the monument from its opening to the Year 2000
spectacular.
• 2002 - “Wojtek Korsak, Tours and Detours”: photo exhibit.
• 2003 - “The Eiffel Tower in 1900, Vintage Postcard Exhibition»
• 2003 - “André Juillard, 36 Views of the Tower”: exhibit of the
André Juillard’s drawings.
• 2004 - The Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai on show at
the Eiffel Tower: a tour of Chinese culture and gastronomy.
The operation cemented the partnership agreement signed in
December 2003, as part of the France-China Cultural Exchange
Program, by the Presidents of the two towers: Mr. Jean-Bernard
Bros, Deputy Mayor of Paris, and Mrs. Niu Weiping.
• 2007 – The Eiffel Tower in Film Posters
• 2007 – Inuits in the 21st Century, Polar Fauna and the
Threatening Climatic Changes
• 2008 - The Parisian Chronicles: 70 years of daily life in Paris
From the Collections of the Roger-Viollet Agency

Exhibitions held in France in
collaboration with the Eiffel Tower

• 1981 - “All about the Eiffel Tower or the life and adventures
of the Eiffel Tower as told by children”, Musée en Herbe Gustave
Eiffel, City of Dijon
• 1982 - “Gustave Eiffel and His Times”, Postal Museum
• 1983 - “Eiffel” - Mâcon Saint Alban
• 1984 - “100 Year anniversary of the Garabit viaduct”
• 1985 - “The Extraordinary Life and Works of Gustave Eiffel” -
Levallois-Perret
• 1989 - “The Eiffel Tower is 100” - Levallois Perret “The Eiffel
Tower and the Universal Exhibition” – Musée d’Orsay “TheTour
Eiffel, a tour of force” - Foundation Mona Bismarck
• 1999 - “Robert Delaunay - From Impressionism to Abstraction,
1906”: an exhibition devoted to Robert Delaunay is held at the
Centre Georges Pompidou. The exhibit includes his famous
“Eiffel Tower” series of paintings. The inaugural lunch is held at
the Eiffel Tower and brings together the curators of the world’s
finest museums.
• 2001-2002 - “The 72 scientists on the Eiffel Tower”, Library of
the Institut Henri Poincaré.
• 2003 - “An Eiffel Tower high in colors” - Centre Georges
Pompidou.
Exhibitions outside France
• 1985 - Eiffel Sveriges Tekniska Museum, Chris Hinchcliffe -
Sweden
• 1986 - “Gustave Eiffel y su obra – La Torre Eiffel Hoy” - Madrid,
Spain
• 1987 - Eiffel at the Franco-Portuguese Institute - Lisbon,
Portugal
• 1988/1989 - “The Eiffel Tower, a 100-year message” - Tokyo
and Osaka, Japan
- Hankyu, Umeda, Osaka
- Moern Art Museum, Gunma, Takasaki
- Matsuhushi, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka
- Iwate Kenmin Kaikan Museum, Morioka, Iwate
• 1989 - “The Eiffel Tower, a tour de force” - New York, USA
• 1992 - “La Torre Eiffel en Mexico” - Mexico
• 1993 - “La Torre Eiffel” - Caracas, Venezuela
• 1999 - The Eiffel Tower Tour on show in Florence. The city of
Florence devotes a major exhibition to the Eiffel Tower, entitled
“From Tuscany to the Europe of Gustave Eiffel. The Eiffel Tower
on the banks of the River Arno”.
• 2004 - The Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai welcomes the Eiffel
Tower for a week, with a photo exhibition and an introduction to
French gastronomy.
2004 - “Gustave Eiffel - De Europa hacia América” - Panama.


Card 17

The Eiffel Tower, symbol of innovative technique at the end of the 19th century, has maintained its universal image.

Even if 6 million visitors climb the Tower each year, the number of those who have set eyes on the Tower but

never foot coupled with those who know of the Tower but have never even caught a glimpse of the monument are

far more numerous.
Its simplified representation is but an inanimate object, an unchanging reference point. Yet, differing from many other

structures built in the past, it is alive, ever changing and evolving.
The most spectacular transformations are also those that are the most visible: it has changed color six times in its

lifetime and its lighting effects have been designed at different moments to decorate the tower for a day or for

longer periods of time. Following many different lighting styles, the present day system has been highlighting the

internal structure of the Tower for more than ten years now.
Less spectacular yet visible are the developments that have been added to the different levels such as the various

pavilions and constructions on the first and second floors. Also the roofing of the galleries and shelters providing

refuge from bad weather conditions including the landing stages, covered walkways, etc., as well as the numerous

technical and service quarters and the spaces located directly over or under these levels.

The elevator and staircases - construction or replacement of - and the elevator platform could also fall into this

same category of developments, except in cases where they have become integrated parts of the structure.

Much less visible are the operations that have modified the original Tower's structure.
Indeed, at different periods in time, even the skeleton structure evolved, either little by little as the necessity arose

or to reinforce certain structural members that were damaged by various causes.

________________________________________

In the descriptive book "THE 300 METER TOWER" Gustave Eiffel gave precise indications concerning his

calculations, how many were used and detailed observation notes.

All of the documents dating back to 1889 and 1900, including his numbered calculations are all

taken from this original work.
In fact, to obtain the 300 meters, the Tower is basically composed of two elements :

- a base, which is a sort of bar stool, very sturdy, standing on 4 main pillars that are bonded and extended with

a much lighter batter at the smaller level that constitutes the second floor,
- a tower firmly attached atop.

The value of the pillar base is directly related to the swaying caused by wind forces.
The diagram of forces in Figure 2 shows the relational use of the materials at the different levels in keeping with

the simplified calculations presented in Figure 3 and 4. We can observe the diminishing wind forces and the ratio

obtained at the base.


That is what gave the theoretical form to the Tower, but it had yet to be built.
The greatest difficulty in erecting it was the bonding of the four main pillars at the first floor.
Indeed, considering the available equipment of the period, it was necessary to implant as precisely as possible four

bases 80 meters apart from each other and then to raise the four pillars at a slant and to prop them up

employing millimeter precision fifty meters above the ground.

The erection of the pillars - auto-stable - above the first floor was less difficult.
As for the tower, it was erected with even less difficult, apart from working at heights ...

The principle behind the structure reveals two apparent sections where it is in tension :
- the horizontal connections on the first floor (7-meter wide girders)
- the base of the tower top

These two points will be brought up farther on.
The structure was made of puddle iron and not steel.
The Tower was assembled using a limited number of fabricated parts, evident in the list taken from Mr. Eiffel's

book:

Several other cast iron parts could be joined to this list of which 16 truss supports, connecting the masonry and the

structure.

________________________________________

The parts used to construct the Tower
All of the iron came from the factories of Mr. Dupont and Mr. Fould, blacksmiths located in Pompey

(Meurthe-et-Moselle), who were represented in Paris by their director Mr. A. Prègre and who kept us informed on

iron grades. They were delivered at the following prices:
Equal angles from 40 to 100 .................................. 13.25 F per 100 kg
Standard sections, 1st and 2nd grades .................................. 13.25 F per 100 kg
Standard sections, 3rd and 4th grades .................................. 13.75 F per 100 kg
Wide flat bars up to 500 .................................. 15.00 F per 100 kg
Ordinary sheet iron .................................. 15.50 F per 100 kg
Checkered plate .................................. 16.50 F per 100 kg
Special tee-sections (designated in Eiffel's book) .................................. 16.00 F per 100 kg
Open and closed angle sections, at made to order angles .................................. 20.00 F per 100 kg