Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower was built for the World’s Fair of 1889 and was then the tallest structure in the world. It is a lattice of about 18,000 iron parts joined with rivets. The tower was meant to be dismantled after twenty years but stayed and is now the symbol of Paris.
Ahead of the World’s Fair of 1889, a hundred years after the Revolution, a competition was held for a tower. The idea came from Gustave Eiffel’s engineers Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier, and the architect Stephen Sauvestre gave the tower its arches and details. Eiffel bought the rights and made the project his own. Construction began in January 1887 and took just over two years. The parts were made in Eiffel’s workshop in Levallois-Perret and riveted together on site. During construction a group of artists and writers protested against what they called a useless and monstrous tower.
The tower is about 300 metres high without antennas, and today over 330 metres with them. It stands on four legs resting on concrete foundations and meeting at a single point higher up. The form is based on calculations of wind forces, and the open lattice offers little wind resistance. The tower has three platforms for visitors. The lifts in the legs follow their slope and were a technical novelty. In total the iron structure weighs about 7,300 tonnes. The arches between the legs at the first level carry little load but turn the tower into a gateway.
The tower was the tallest structure in the world until 1930, when the Chrysler Building in New York overtook it. It was due to be dismantled after twenty years, but was saved by being used for radio transmissions and scientific experiments. Today it is one of the most visited monuments in the world. The tower became a symbol of modern engineering and influenced artists such as Robert Delaunay. It shows how a structure that was at first despised can become the emblem of a whole city.