The Eiffel
Tower is an iron lattice tower located
on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It was named after the engineer Gustav Eiffel,
whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to 1989 World’s
fair, it was initially criticized by some of France’s leading artists and
intellectuals for its design, but has become both a global cultural icon of
France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is tallest structure in Paris and the most
visited paid monument in the world.
The tower
is 324m tall, and the same height as an
81 – storey building. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to assume the title of
the tallest man – made structure in the world, a title held for 41 years, until
the Crystal Building in New York City was built in 1930.
The tower
has three levels for visitors, with restaurants on the first and second level. The
third level observatory’s upper platform is 276 m above the ground, the highest
accessible to the public in Europe Union. The climb from ground to first level
is over three steps, as is the walk from the first to the public and it is
generally only accessible by lift.
The
design of the Eiffel Rower was originated by Maurice Koechlin and Emile
Nouguier, two senior engineers who worked the Compgnie des Establissement
Eiffel, after a discussion about a suitable center piece for the proposed 1889
Exposition Univverselle, a World’s Fair which would celebrate the centennial of
the French revolution. In May 1884 Koechlin working at home, made an outline
drawing of their scheme, described by him as a “great pylon”, consisting of
four lattice girders standing apart at
the base and coming together at the top, joined together by metal trusses at
regular intervals. Initially Eiffel himself showed little enthusiasm, but he
did sanction further study of the project and two engineers then asked Stephen
Sauvestre the head of company’s architectural department, to contribute to the
design. Sauvestre added decorative arches to the base, a glass pavilion to the
first level, and other embellishment.
Work on
the foundation started on 28 January 1887. Those for the east and south legs
were straight forward, each leg resting on four 2 m concrete slabs, one for
each of the principal girders of each leg by the other two, being closer to the
river Seine.
The main
structural work was completed at the end of March 1889 and on the 31st
Eiffel celebrated this by leading a group of government officials, accompanied by
representatives of the press, to the top of the tower.
The tower
was an immediate success with the public and nearly 30,000 visitors made the
1,710 – step climb to the top using the stairs before the lifts entered service on 26
May. In the end of exhibition there had
been 1,986,987 visitors.
After
dark the tower was lit by hundreds gas lamps and a beacon sending out three
beams of red, white and blue light.