The Eiffel Tower was built by Gustave Eiffel for the 1889 Universal Exhibition, spread over 96 hectares in Paris: the Champ-de-Mars and the Palais du Trocadéro.
The Second Empire (1852 - 1870) and Napoleon III chose the Champ-de-Mars for the great universal exhibitions of 1867, then 1878, and finally 1889 (Centenary of the revolution of 1789). At the 1889 exhibition, the highlight of the show was the Eiffel Tower.
The year 1889 was also the celebration of the first centenary of the French Revolution. The construction of the Eiffel Tower in 2 years, 2 months, and 5 days, by 250 workers, was a truly technical and architectural performance. This exceptional heritage still attests to Gustave Eiffel's visionary genius.
Intended to last only 20 years, it was saved by the scientific experiments that Gustave Eiffel promoted, in particular the first radio transmissions and later telecommunications. At first a meteorological laboratory, then a radio and TV station (1925). From the open gallery, you can see the two lighthouses and the TV antennas, installed in 1957.
A central role for more than 130 years
Over the decades, the Eiffel Tower has known exploits, extraordinary illuminations, and prestigious visitors. The mythical and audacious site has always inspired artists and challenges.
It is the theater of many events of international scope: lighting, the centenary of the Tower, a pyrotechnic show of the year 2000, painting campaigns, glittering. It became Blue Tower for the French Presidency of the European Union or multicolored for its 120 years. It was also the sites of installations such as an ice rink, a garden...
The monument is the symbol of France and showcase of Paris. Today it receives nearly 7 million visitors per year (of which about 75% are foreigners), making it the most visited paying monument in the world. Nearly 300 million visitors, regardless of age or origin, have come from all over the world to discover it since it opened in 1889.
Eiffel Tower: the symbol of France
The 360° panoramic view of Paris is unique, especially from the 2nd floor. On this floor is the Jules Verne restaurant, starred in the Michelin Guide. On the 1st floor, there is a brasserie that will reopen in 2021. On the 3rd floor, the "Champagne Bar" offers glasses of rosé or white champagne, served chilled as desired. Your glass can be accompanied by caviar! But you can also find homemade lemonade and mineral water. Open from 11 am to 10:30 pm (until midnight in July and August).
The builder, the engineer Gustave Eiffel
Gustave Eiffel's exceptional career as a builder is marked by technical feats. He was born on December 15, 1832 in Dijon and died on December 27, 1923 in Paris.
In 1876, he built the Porto viaduct over the Douro River in Portugal, then the Garabit viaduct (France) in 1884, as well as the Pest railway station in Hungary, the dome of the Nice Observatory, and the ingenious structure of the Statue of Liberty in New York. The highest building he built remains the Eiffel Tower in 1889. This date marks the end of his career as an entrepreneur when he became embroiled, in spite of himself, in the scandal of the Panama Canal. But before that, he was the initiator of "portable bridges", sold in "kits" all over the world.
After the Exposition Universelle of 1889, he tried to find a use for the Eiffel Tower, which had lost interest . He researched air resistance, building a wind tunnel at the very foot of the Tower, then a larger one in 1909 in rue Boileau in Paris, which is still in operation. The Tower also became a meteorological observation station in parallel with the collection of meteorological data in the stations installed in its various properties. Last but not least, the Eiffel Tower became a giant antenna for the nascent radio and "a strategic interest for national defense. Gustave Eiffel died on December 27, 1923, at the age of 91.
School debates "between architects" before its construction
Steel structures already existed, but were "horizontal" (Maria Pia bridges over the Douro in Porto, built by Gustave Eiffel in 1877; in France, the Garabit viaduct in 1884, and several dozen others in Europe). Vertical structures had been used in buildings and railway stations, but covered in stone, concrete or sheet metal (Skeleton of the Statue of Liberty designed by Auguste Bartholdi and inaugurated in New York in 1886).
It was in fact a quarrel between architects who favored stone and concrete, and engineers who wanted to showcase the metal structure in a modernist approach. Statue of Liberty frame. As for the Eiffel Tower, the main competitor was architect Jules Bourdais, who opposed Eiffel with a 370 m-high masonry column. This impractical column was surmounted by a lighthouse that was supposed to illuminate Paris all the way to the Bois de Vincennes - an impossible task, given the technology available at the time. The difficulties were obvious, but this dream of a tower haunted many architects of the time, without success. Jules Bourdais was best known for the Palais du Trocadéro, built with architect Davioud for the 1878 Universal Exhibition. It was dismantled in 1935 for the 1937 exhibition.
Bourdais and Eiffel were both alumni of the Centrale engineering school, graduating in 1857 and 1855 respectively. They were 3 years apart.
The 1000-foot tower
The ambition to build a tower "over a thousand feet high" is on the minds of the world's most daring architects. However, they came up against countless technical problems. In 1885, for example, the masonry construction of the 169-metre-high Washington Obelisk came to an abrupt end. But "the idea of a monumental tower haunts the air...". In 1874, Clarke and Reeves claimed they wanted to build a tower of over 1,000 feet in Philadelphia, but it never saw the light of day.
In France, after the defeat at Sedan and the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, the reborn and still-fragile Republic needed a coup to mark the centenary of the 1789 Revolution. The project to build a tower over 1,000 feet high for the 1889 Universal Exhibition was finally adopted in 1883.
The Eiffel project
For this 1889 project, adopted in 1883, two Eiffel engineers, Émile Nouguier and Maurice Koechlin, came up with the idea of a metal tower. Among their sources of inspiration was the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan. Their sketch, completed on June 6, 1884, was embellished by the collaboration of architect Stephen Sauvestre, who refined and decorated the building.
Initially reluctant, Gustave Eiffel accepted the idea of his collaborators (Maurice Koechlin), buying back the patent registered on September 18, 1884. Now he had to sell his tower. Under the above label, he first proposed it to the mayor of Barcelona - soon to host another world's fair - who refused, deeming the project "unrealistic and, above all, far too expensive". To avoid another failure, the entrepreneur realized that he had to make his project credible not only in the eyes of the mayors, but also in the eyes of public opinion. So he spent a fortune on press articles, advertising and public relations (notably with Édouard Lockroy, Minister of Commerce and general commissioner of the exhibition).
On May 1, 1886, Eiffel's project won unanimous approval (after "adapting" the specifications in favor of Eiffel's project) and won out over all other candidates. In fact, the selection committee was divided, which delayed the signing of the contract and penalized competing projects that were less "astute" than Eiffel's. The agreement with the government, dated January 8 1887, specifies the financing and the location, on the banks of the Seine - in line with the Pont d'Iéna - in other words, in the center of the capital.
The final construction contract awarded to Mr. Eiffel
It's a contract of just 12 pages, signed on January 8, 1887.
"On January 8, 1887, Messrs Lockroy, Minister, General Commissioner of the Exhibition, Poubelle, Prefect of the Seine, duly authorized by the City Council, and Eiffel, the bidder, signed an agreement under which the latter definitively undertook to build the 300-meter Tower and to put it into operation at the opening of the 1889 Exhibition.
Mr. Eiffel remained under the control of the Exhibition engineers and the Special Commission set up on May 12, 1886. He received :
1. A subsidy of 1,500,000 francs, to be paid in three instalments, with the final instalment due on acceptance of the work;
2. Authorization to operate the Tower for the duration of the Exhibition, both in terms of public climbing and the installation of restaurants, cafés or similar establishments, on the twofold condition that the price of climbing would be limited, on ordinary days, to 5 francs for the top and 2 francs for the second floor, and on Sundays and public holidays, to 2 francs for the top and 1 franc for the second floor, and that concessions for cafés, restaurants, etc., would be approved by the Minister;
3. Continued enjoyment for twenty years from January 1, 1890.
At the end of this last period, the enjoyment of the Tower was to revert to the City of Paris, which was moreover substituted for the State in the ownership of the monument, as soon as the Exhibition was over."
Financial constraints on the Eiffel company
Eiffel had an excellent reputation, with numerous references for bridges, viaducts and stations in France and throughout Europe. He knew how to surround himself with remarkable men, such as Émile Nouguier and Maurice Koechlin. He's a workaholic, a respected man. He went far and fast with new, simple ideas. But the City of Paris could only subsidize the construction to the tune of 1.5 million francs. Gustave Eiffel put up 80% of the cost, estimated at 6.5 million francs, out of his own pocket - a major financial risk. In return, the authorities granted him a twenty-year concession starting January 1, 1890, after which the tower would revert to the City of Paris.
In fact, in 1888, Gustave Eiffel turned to 3 banks, signing an agreement on September 3, 1888 (seven months before the end of construction) with the Banque franco-égyptienne, the Crédit industriel et commercial and the Société générale. This led to the creation of the Société de la tour Eiffel (STE), to which Eiffel contributed his right to operate the tower.
The figures behind the construction of the Eiffel Tower
The building site
Start of construction and foundations: January 26, 1887
Pile erection began: July 1, 1887
Completion of 1st floor: April 1, 1888
Completion of 2nd floor: August 14, 1888
Completion of top and construction: March 31, 1889
Construction time: 2 years, 2 months and 5 days (A true technical feat)
Design
18,038 metal parts
5,300 shop drawings
50 engineers and draughtsmen
Construction
150 workers at the Levallois-Perret plant
Between 150 and 300 workers on site
2,500,000 rivets
7,300 tonnes of puddled iron (puddling to remove excess carbon from the cast iron)
60 tonnes of paint
5 elevators
The construction of the Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel company won the competition which was to "study the possibility of erecting on the Champ-de-Mars an iron tower, with a square base, 125 meters wide and 300 meters high", in front of 107 competitors. It is the project of Gustave Eiffel, contractor, Maurice Koechlin, and Emile Nouguier, engineers, and Stephen Sauvestre, an architect who is retained.
The foundations started in January 1887 and the structure of the piers began on July 1, 1887. The completion of the top and construction was 21 months later, on March 31, 1889.
This speed of execution is due to the trick used by the manufacturer. All the elements are prepared at the Levallois-Perret factory next to Paris, headquarters of the Eiffel company. Each of the Tower's 18,000 parts is drawn and calculated before being manufactured to the tenth of a millimeter. It is then assembled in sections of about five meters. On the site, between 150 and 300 workers only, supervised by a team of veterans of the great metal viaducts made earlier by Eiffel, take care of the assembly of this gigantic Meccano. Only a third of the 2,500,000 rivets that make up the Tower have been placed directly on the site.
The Eiffel Tower exerts a ground pressure of only 3 to 4 kilos per square centimeter. "Sandboxes" and hydraulic cylinders - replaced after use by fixed wedges - allow the exact vertical position of the steel structure under construction to be adjusted to the nearest millimeter.
The debates at the time of the construction of the Eiffel Tower
Even before Gustave Eiffel was named winner of the competition, the controversy over the tower to be built was extreme. It was led mainly by the architects' council, which was not in favor of a visible metal structure, and by Jules Bourdais, who was a competitor of Gustave Eiffel but also a member of the council. At the time, it was customary to eventually use a metal structure, but under stone or concrete protection.
After Gustave Eiffel was named builder of the Tower, the controversy continued unabated. The Tower's construction project continued to arouse fierce hostility. As soon as the first sod was turned, in January 1887, an "Artists' Protest" against its construction was signed by some of the most notable names : Charles Gounod, Charles Garnier, Victorien Sardou, Alexandre Dumas fils, François Coppée, Sully Prudhomme, Leconte de Lisle, Guy de Maupassant, Huysmans… "Let's be wary of great men! Let us beware of great men", Eiffel would have said at the time.
During its construction, the Tower was already at the heart of debates. Criticism from the great names in the world of literature and the arts finally brought the Tower to the forefront while being met with the success it deserved. The polemics will fade away of their own accord once the Tower is completed, given the indisputable presence of the completed work and the immense popular success it was met with. It received two million visitors during the 1889 Exhibition.
The Eiffel Tower in figures to remember
Current height: 324 meters (with antennas).
Initial height: 312 meters (see below)
1st floor at 57 meters, 4415 m2 of floor space
2nd floor at 115 meters and 1430 m2 of floor space
3rd floor at 276 meters and 250 m2 of floor space
Elevators: 5 elevators from the ground to the 2nd floor, 2 batteries of 2 duo-lifts (special elevators) from the 2nd floor to the top.
Weight of the steel structure: 7,300 tons
Total weight: 10,100 tons
Number of rivets used: 2 500 000
Number of iron pieces: 18 038
Pillars: The 4 pillars form a square of 125 meters on each side.
Why does the Eiffel Tower change height throughout the year?
We know the official height of the Eiffel Tower which is 324 meters with its antennas. The reality is a little different.
In fact, in summer, when our thermometer is close to 30°, it gets longer by about ten centimeters and during the hottest days, it can get up to 20 cm.
In winter it's the opposite: the temperature can drop to minus 10 or minus 15 degrees Celsius at ground level and minus 20 degrees Celsius at the top of the Eiffel Tower - which can shorten it by 20 cm or more!
There is nothing magical about this: it is the normal thermal expansion according to the temperature of the "puddle iron" that makes it up, over a length of 324 m.
Again for the same reason (thermal expansion), the Eiffel Tower leans in summer on the side opposite the one exposed to the sun: until about 3 pm, it leans more to the north side, and at the end of the day, more to the east side.
The end of Gustave Eiffel's activity as an Engineer-Conctructor: the Panama Canal
On the strength of this success, Eiffel immediately set about building the locks for the Panama Canal. In fact, the canal was making no headway, and Ferdinand de Lesseps abandoned the idea of a canal at sea level in favor of Eiffel's idea of building large locks. But in 1893, the Compagnie, under the presidency of Lesseps, was plunged into a huge financial scandal linked, among other things, to the corruption of members of the french parliament responsible for covering up its near-bankruptcy in the face of public opinion.
The Panama scandal is huge. Many small investors were ruined. Gustave Eiffel, even though he had only acted as a contractor on behalf of the Company and had scrupulously fulfilled his commitments, was prosecuted in his turn - public opinion wanted heads to roll. Sentenced on February 9, 1893 by the Paris Court of Appeal to two years' imprisonment and a fine of 20,000 francs, Gustave Eiffel was finally rehabilitated by the Court of Cassation on June 15, 1893, following an investigation which showed that he was not involved in the embezzlement.
Innocent but deeply wounded by the Panama affair, Gustave Eiffel retired from business to devote himself to scientific works in meteorology and aerodynamics (in relation with aviation technology). He was also concerned with the future of "his Tower".
Gustave Eiffel again to the rescue of his tower
Gustave Eiffel owned the Tower until 1910 only. An attempt by the lobby anti-Eiffel had been made to have the City of Paris "buy back" the contract that ran until that date - and demolish the tower. But in the face of Gustave Eiffel's demands, and the fact that he had the law on his side, this attempt failed.
What's more, visits to the Tower were shunned by the public, who once again flocked to Paris for the 1900 Universal Exhibition. The Eiffel Tower went out of fashion.
But Gustave Eiffel was determined to demonstrate its usefulness. In 1898, he installed a weather laboratory at the top of the Tower, and a few years later, in 1901, a permanent radio transmitter. He felt obliged to find all kinds of scientific uses for the Tower: radioactivity measurements, air analysis, Foucault's pendulum experiment, etc. "It won't simply be an object of interest," he says. "It will not only be an object of curiosity for the public, either during the Exhibition or afterwards, but it will also render signal services to science and national defense". He carried out an experiment that eventually attracted the attention of national security and probably saved the Tower. TSF signals emitted from the top of the Eiffel Tower were picked up on the French-German border in Alsace, which was particularly sensitive after the French defeat of 1870. This was the beginning of the end for military carrier pigeons! "This tower is of strategic interest for national defence," declared General Ferrié, TSF specialist. The range of his transmitter installed on top of the Eiffel Tower, initially of 400 km, is increased in 1908 to almost 6,000 km, making it possible to reach not only garrisons close to the German border, but also Russia, France's ally.
Eiffel and new aviation-related technologies
The engineer, who was betting on the future of "heavier than air", began work on aerodynamics, a specialty in which he had previously taken an interest when building the tower (because of its wind resistance). He used the tower to measure the aerodynamic drag of bodies with a so-called "free-fall" apparatus. In 1909, he set up his first wind tunnel on the Champ-de-Mars, followed in 1912 by a second at Auteuil, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.
During the First World War, Eiffel continued his research into propellers, wings and projectiles.
After the war, he donated all these installations to the French government, more specifically to the Service technique de l'aéronautique, in 1921.
Note on our self-guided walks from the Eiffel Tower
We have programmed several self-guided walks of one to three km available at any time on your phone. By clicking on "Walk from Eiffel Tower to Palais de Chaillot" you will get the corresponding itineraries.
This "Visiting-Paris-by-yourself service" includes about twenty walks whose starting points are always at the exit of the great monuments and museums, such as the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, etc. See "Guided Walks" on the Home Page. You'll be amazed at how much these guided walks can help you in your Parisian peregrinations!
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