A Brief History Of The Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower is an observation and Broadcasting tower, which is located in the Champ De Mars, in Paris, France. It was named after the engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the monument. The construction of the Tower began on 28 January, 1887, and was completed on 15 March, 1889, its grand opening occurred on 31 March 1889. Initially, the Eiffel Tower was strongly criticised by some of France's most notable artists and intellectuals because of its unconventional design. In the beginning a number of French scholars despised the Eiffel Tower to such a degree that they disrespectfully referred to it as 'The Iron Asparagus'. However, years later, around the 1930s, the Eiffel Tower was affectionately given the nickname 'La Dame de fer' which means ' The Iron lady' in French. It is believed that this nickname originated when Citroen cars started using the Eiffel Tower as a giant commercial billboard between 1925 and 1934, which at that time was recorded as the biggest advertisement in the world by the Guinness Book of Records. Presently, the Eiffel Tower is established as a global cultural icon and is a quintessential symbol of France. It is also one of the most famous and recognizable buildings in the world. The city of Paris currently owns the Eiffel Tower, and the management of the building has been entrusted to 'Société d'Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel', 99% of which is owned by the city of Paris.

The Eiffel Tower was envisioned during discussions for an ideal centrepiece for the proposed 1889 Exposition Universelle, which was a world's fair to celebrate the centennial of the French Revolution which occurred in 1789. The Eiffel Tower is predominantly built from an interlaced framework structure of wrought-iron, it is 324 meters (1,063 ft.) high, and is the highest building in France with 1,665 steps from the Esplanade to the top of the building. The Tower has a square base, which measures 125 meters (410 ft.) on each side. It had taken between 150 - 300 workers to complete the monument, unfortunately, during its construction there was one fatality. The Eiffel Tower holds the record as the first building in the world to surpass the 200 meter and 300 meter mark in height. The building has three levels for visitors, and contains first class restaurants on the first level (Madame Brasserie), and second level (Le Jules Verne). The upper platform of the top level is 906 feet above the ground. And from 1889 until 1930 the Eiffel Tower held the record as the tallest building in the world, until it was eventually superseded by the Chrysler building in New York, United States.

Alexandre Gustave Eiffel

Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (1832 - 1923), was born in Dijon, France. His registered birth name was Bönickhausen dit Eiffel, and his parents were, Catherine-Mélanie and Alexandre Bönickhausen dit Eiffel, both Germans. Gustave Eiffel's ancestors had adopted the name Eiffel as a reference to the Eifel mountains, which was situated within a region of Germany, from which his parents had emigrated to resettle in France. Gustave Eiffel was known to be an ambitious pupil and had achieved excellent grades at school, after which he went on to become a graduate of Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures. Following his graduation, Gustave Eiffel received his first employment in 1856, as a private secretary to Charles Nepveu, who was a railway engineer. Unfortunately, a short time later, Charles Nepveu's company went bankrupt, after which he decided to offer Eiffel employment working with sheet iron, and designing bridges for the Sainte Germaine Railway. Eiffel had excelled in his numerous tasks and accomplishments, while building his reputation , which eventually earned him a promotion to become the Bureau Chief at Pauwels and Cie, in 1857.

Gustave Eiffel's first major project was the construction of the Bordeaux railway bridge over the river Garonne (a river of southwest France and northern Spain). Following his successful completion of this project on time, Gustave received high acclaim from notable figures including, French engineer and politician, Jean Baptiste Krantz, and French architect Stanislas de la Roche Toulay. Gustave was also commissioned to construct two railway stations in France called Toulouse and Agen, additionally, in 1866, he was given a contract to manage the construction of 33 locomotives (rail transport vehicles) for the Egyptian government. And it followed that eventually, in 1868, Gustave Eiffel entered into a business partnership with Théophile Seyrig, with whom he was previously a fellow student at Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures. They called their new company Eiffel et Cie, and they became successful in winning a number of major contracts to design bridges for the French railway network. Nevertheless, in the year 1879, Gustave's partnership with Seyrig abruptly ended, at which time Gustave decided to take over the business as the sole owner and renamed the company, Compagnie des Etablissements Eiffel.

Some of Gustave Eiffel's most notably achievements were the Garabit Viaduct, which is a famous arch railway bridge spanning the Truyére, near Ruynes-en-Margeride, Cantal, in France, and the Maria Pia Bridge (Portugal). He was also one of the contributors to the creation of the Statue of Liberty, which was designed by French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. The Statue of Liberty was also called 'Liberty Enlightening the World' and it was presented to Levi Parsons Morton, the US ambassador to France, on 4 July, 1884, in Paris, as a gift from France to America. But before the Statue of Liberty could be transported to the United States it was disassembled and then placed on the French Navy ship Isére. The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York harbour, on 17 June, 1885, to a vast welcome crowd of jubilant Americans. But, Gustave Eiffel's crowning glory remains the creation of the Eiffel Tower. Gustave had openly confessed that the original idea for the Eiffel Tower was inspired by the Latting Observatory building in New York City, which was built in 1853.

The Original Designers

The original visionaries for the creation of the Eiffel Tower are said to be  Maurice Koechlin (1856-1946), who was a Franco-Swiss structural engineer, Emile Nouguier (1840-1897), who was a French architect and civil engineer, and Charles Leon Stephen Sauvestre (1847-1919), who was a French architect, all three men had been employed by Compagnie des Etablissements Eiffel (owned by Gustave Eiffel), and they had worked collaboratively with Gustave Eiffel on that particular project, once they had received his approval of their original ideas. Émile Nouguier graduated from École Polytechnique, in Paris, in 1861, after which he enrolled and successfully graduated from École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris, in 1865. And following his graduation, beginning from 1867, he gained employment working for Compagnie des Etablissements Eiffel. Émile Nouguier was also famous for his contribution to a number of other major works, two of which were, the Garabit Viaduct, which is a famous arch railway bridge, spanning the Truyére, in France, and he also contributed to the design of the Faidherbe Bridge, in Senegal. 

Charles Leon Stephen Sauvestre (1847 - 1919), was a notable French architect who had graduated with first class honours from École Spéciale d'Architecture, in 1868. He contributed to the decorative aspects of the Eiffel Tower, such as the decorative arches, glass pavilion on the first level, the cupola at the summit of the building, as well as other decorative designs for the building, including the meticulous paintwork. In addition, Charles Leon was eventually promoted to become head of the architecture department of Compagnie des Etablissements Eiffel. Maurice Koechlin (1856 - 1946) was a Franco-Swiss structural engineer, who had studied civil engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, Switzerland, between 1873 and 1877. He began working for the French railway company Chemin de Fer de l'Est, from 1877 until 1879, and then later in the year 1879, he gained employment working for Gustave Eiffel's company (Compagnie des Etablissements Eiffel). When Gustave Eiffel eventually retired from the engineering profession in 1893, it was Maurice Koechlin who took over as Managing Director of Eiffel's organisation, at which point the business was renamed Société de construction de Levallois-Perret.

The Convention For The Eiffel Tower 

After French politician Edward Lockroy was elected minister of commerce and industry in 1886. He oversaw a budget for the exposition, and set up a commission on 12 of May, 1886, in order to examine Eiffel's building proposal and the other contenders who were offering a centre piece for the exposition. Because Edward Lockroy was in favour of building the Eiffel Tower, it was reported that he controversially changed the requirements for the competition, so that the rules there after, stated that entrants to the competition must include a detailed research for a 980 feet four-sided metal tower on the Camp de Mars, in Paris, which meant that Eiffel's proposal was a forgone conclusion. Approximately one month later, Eiffel's monument design was awarded the contract, which was signed on 8 January, 1887, by Gustave Eiffel and the other representatives, including Edward Lockroy Minister of Commerce, on behalf of the national government, and Eugène Poubelle, prefect for the Seine, on behalf of the City. The convention stated in Article 11 that Gustave Eiffel's company would build the Tower at his own expense but that the government would grant 1.5 million francs towards the construction of the monument. The construction engineers, who had appraised the work at that time, estimated the cost for the completion of the Eiffel Tower to be around 6.5 million francs. However, upon completion of the building, the actual cost was 7,799, 401.31 francs. The Eiffel Tower was completed in 2 years, 2 months and 5 days. The Tower currently weighs 10,100 metric tons and has 1,665 steps. It was assembled from 18,000 parts, which were specifically designed and meticulously calculated to an accuracy of a tenth of a millimetre, and then brought to the site where construction took place forming larger sections which were held together by 2.5 million rivets.

The Eiffel Tower was originally intended as a temporary exhibition monument, presented for the centennial of the French Revolution, but following the exhibition the French authorities had scheduled for the entire building to be dismantled. After the Eiffel Tower was completed in 1889, Gustave Eiffel was given a permit for the Tower by the French government that was due to expire in 1909. This permit was offered as an expression of gratitude to Gustave Eiffel for his company's achievement, but also, to allow his organisation the time to recuperate any financial losses incurred due to the project, and to allow Eiffel to make a significant profit margin. After which time the ownership of the Eiffel Tower was scheduled to be transferred to the city of Paris, since the land which it had been built upon was owned by the city. However, because the Tower proved extremely valuable for radio telegraphy, as well as a number of other services, and importantly, it became very popular with the general public as an observation venue, in addition to popular demand, eventually, it was decided that the Tower should remain open for an indefinite time.

Opposition To The Eiffel Tower

Once the proposition for the Eiffel Tower had been put forward, and the official design had been published to the general public in France. There began a very concerted effort by a number of artistic scholars, academics, and architects to prevent the monument from being built. Such was the strength of feeling opposing the construction of the Eiffel Tower, that an opposition movement was formed called 'Committee of Three Hundred' which was headed by the famous French architect Charles Garnier, the list had included a number of prominent French figures of literature and the Arts, who lived in France at that time, such as William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Gay de Maupassant, Charles Gounod, Jules Massenet, François Coppée, Leconte de Lisle and Sully Prudhomme. The movement put forward a petition called 'Artists against the Eiffel Tower' which was sent to Adolphe Alphand, who was the Minister of Works and Commissioner for the Exposition. The controversy was further intensified, when the petition was published by a popular newspaper in Paris, called 'Le Temps' on 14 February, 1887. The petition was a bitter critique from a wide spectrum of artists, who expressed their grievances, and had painted a prospect of depressing gloom across the city of Paris, if the Eiffel Tower was permitted to be constructed. They cited that the Eiffel Tower was a 'monstrosity' which had no aesthetic beauty, and they also stated that its instalment would tarnish the good reputation of the city of Paris, since Paris had already established a global reputation, as the capital of artistic excellence. Gustave Eiffel responded with a spirited defence of his project, firstly by comparing the Eiffel Tower to the ancient pyramids, and then he outlined the Eiffel Tower's practical uses, and finally finished his statement by saying that the Eiffel Tower would be a symbol of the modern era, and the accomplishments and advancements in art and science in Europe, especially the scientific movement of the 18th century, and the French Revolution of 1789.

Safety Concerns About The Tower

When construction of the Eiffel Tower began, the creation of an elevator system was a considerable challenge to install, as well as a major safety concern for the government commission overseeing the project. In view of the unprecedented height of the building construction in that era, a vertical lift system from the ground floor all the way to the apex of the building was not a viable option, therefore, any elevator systems had to be constructed along the perpendicular incline of the building. Despite adverts for a much preferred French organisation to come forward and undertake the work, none was bold enough or possessed the know how to take on that particular task. The Otis Brothers & Company (American organization), had the experience, technology, and expertise to undertake the challenge. And eventually they were awarded the contract for the majority of the work pertaining to implementation of the elevator systems and carriages. A French company called 'Roux Combaluzeir & Lepape' contributed to the implementation of elevator systems, by constructing lift systems in the east and west legs, from the ground floor to the first level of the Eiffel Tower. In the beginning, the highly complex mechanisms for the elevator systems were powered by a hydraulic system connected to a large reservoir, which was situated on the second level of the Tower. However, throughout the 20th century, there were a number of highly reputable engineering organisations that contributed to the upgrading of the elevator systems for the Tower, two of which were French elevator companies 'Schneider Electric' and 'Five-Lille'.

With the exception of the ancient pyramids, in the modern era, the Eiffel Tower was the first building to exceed a height of 300 meters. Before the Eiffel Tower began construction, there were a number of notable architects and structural engineers who had expressed their grave concerns about whether such a tall building would be robust enough to withstand the powerful impacts of the most severe weather over the course of time. However, Eiffel had promptly responded by reminding his sceptics of the numerous projects that he and his team of experts had accomplished, including the many famous bridges that they had designed and built across France and within other nations, and further reassured them that he and his team were well versed in the complex laws of structural engineering, relating to the impacts of the natural elements and gravity. 

The type of iron used to build the Eiffel Tower had underwent a long refining process termed 'Puddling' which resulted in eradicating any carbon and certain other impurities from the iron ore. This purification process was a cutting-edge technology at that time in history, which ultimately produced a much stronger material called wrought-iron. In addition, the Eiffel Tower was created with the application of complicated mathematical formulas, in order to enable the structure to withstand the most powerful winds over an indefinite period of time, in addition it was designed so that powerful currents caused by storms ebbed through and around its scientifically structural shape. The Tower is also designed to be flexible enough on the upper levels to sway between approximately 7 cm and 9 cm, which further increased the fortification of the building. Once the Eiffel Tower was completed Gustave Eiffel recommended that the entire building be painted once every seven years, in order to avoid rust and that tradition has continued to the present day.

Since the Eiffel Tower was first opened to the general public in 1889, over many generations it has evolved into a daily hive of activity, eternally proving to be a magnificent magnet for human curiosity, many of whom have travelled from various parts of the world particularly to experience the exciting prospect of ascending the building. As a result, from its incipiency ongoing maintenance has been carried out on various parts of the building for continual modernisation, and refurbishments, particularly throughout the mid to late 20th century. There has been work undertaken for the renovation and reconstruction of new restaurants, lift systems, stairways, and many other improvements to the monument, including, presently, there are said to be over 20,000 electric light bulbs installed across the entire structure, which requires ongoing daily maintenance.

The Chequered History Of The Eiffel Tower

After the German occupation of France in 1940, the Eiffel Tower lift cables were cut by the French authorities, with the intention of forcing the German troops to walk to the top of the Tower if they wished to visit or utilize it for communication purposes. After 4 years of Nazi-occupation, the liberation of Paris became imminent when allied forces approached Paris in August 1944. Meanwhile, French resistance fighters helped to hasten French liberation by engaging in street battles with German forces. It then followed on 23 August, 1944, that Adolph Hitler infamously gave the order to his General, Dietrich Von Choltitz, who was the military governor of Paris at that time, to demolish the Eiffel Tower and all of Paris. Adolph Hitler had intended to leave only the ruins of the city for his enemies to claim, but ultimately, the General refused to carry out the controversial command, which proved to be too offensive for Von Choltitz's conscience to ignore. As a result, ironically, Von Choltitz is sometimes fondly referred to as 'The Saviour of Paris'. The Eiffel Tower had remained closed to the general public during the German occupation, and the French authorities did not fully repair the lift system until after the war in 1946.

On 3 January, 1956, a fire started in the television transmitter offices of the Eiffel Tower, which caused considerable damage to the top level of the building. The ongoing repairs took one year to complete, and in 1957 a replacement radio transmitter was installed. Over many generations the Eiffel Tower received a reputation as the chosen venue for those individuals who were seeking to test their inventions. As a result, unfortunately, there were some tragic events. Austro-Hungarian Franz Reichelt (1878 - 1912), who was a French tailor, inventor, and parachuting pioneer, died after he attempted to demonstrate his parachute creation by jumping from the Eiffel Tower, in 1912. Over a decade later, French aircraft pilot Leon Collet (1866 - 1926), also tragically died when he attempted to fly under a section of the Eiffel Tower, his airplane became entangled with an aerial that belonged to a wireless station, which had been connected to the Eiffel Tower.

Interestingly, the original construction of the Eiffel Tower included a laboratory situated either at or close to the summit of the building, which was once utilized for various scientific experiments. And in close proximity, Gustave Eiffel had designed a small private apartment at the top of the Tower, exclusively for his personal requirements, which he sometimes used for entertaining special guests. Currently that apartment is open to the general public for viewing, complete with vintage decorations from that era, and a number of imitation mannequins of Gustave Eiffel with some of his famous guests during that era. Throughout its history the Eiffel Tower has been primarily utilized as an observation and broadcasting tower, but it has also maintained its popularity as a venue for various organisations to showcase their services, as well as a venue for special national celebratory events. The Eiffel Tower remains one of France's extraordinary assets, and contributes significantly to the wealth and attraction of France's tourism industry. 

Before the creation of the tallest Tower in France, with a destiny to enchant the world, the very idea of its presence in Paris had instigated a French furore, which had arisen from a tidal wave of scholars and academics from within the higher echelons of artistic society. An opposition army of artists who had waged a battle of wills against the French political establishment that existed at that time, in order to prevent the creation of the Eiffel Tower. But following its construction, over many generations, the reputation of the Eiffel Tower has evolved most triumphantly, to be perceived by many people as a symbol of power and pride for France, in addition to the enduring legacy of the great visionary architects, who created the structure many generations ago. According to official statistics roughly 7 million people visit the Eiffel Tower each year (approximately 75 percent of which are foreigners), making it the most visited admission fee monument in the world.

Written by Star_gazer

Published 31 October 2021