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Eiffel Tower (Click on image to view larger version) Design A version of the tower was first put on paper in 1884 by Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel’s two lead engineers, Emile Nouguier and Maurice Koechlin. But the P.R. savvy Eiffel secretly filed the patent that forever linked this ultimate folly to his name solely. In May of 1886, 107 entries for a 300-meter, four-sided structure to be the major focal point for the 1889 World’s Fair (also referred to as the “Exposition Tricolorée”) were received by the Centennial Committee of the 1789 Revolution.
Rights But Eiffel was also quite aware that he needed to legally own the rights to Sauvestre’s aesthetic improvements as the architect wasn’t technically under his employment. So Eiffel revised his original 1884 patent. Eiffel’s company, long respected for being adept at iron bridge-building and well known for the support cage inside America’s Statue of Liberty, submitted its idea for what would later be known as the Eiffel Tower. They won the competition.
As the construction of the legs reached what would be the first platform on December 7th, 16 wooden scaffolds 30 and 40 meters high were built to support the workmen for the first platform. Small steam cranes climbed up the empty elevator shafts to lift the iron beams used for the legs and deck. By April 1st, 1888, the platform itself was finished. In rapid succession, the second platform was reached August 14th followed by the tower’s topping out on March 31st, 1889. In total, the construction took only two years and two months.
Elevators In the design process of the tower, the need for elevators to the first and second platforms was financially important as they would receive the most visitors. But even though the crowds would be smaller, those further ascending to the top level at nearly 300 meters, using altogether different mechanics, were critical as well. One method for the vertical ascent to the top first discussed was the counterbalance of two round double-decker pods (one going down while the other went up). However, they were to rotate in a screw motion. The dizzying unworkability of this system meant it was quickly eliminated.
The relatively straightforward runs up the lower part of the East and West legs found a French elevator company (Roux, Combaluzier and LePape) but the curved legs up to the second proved the need for an American one (Otis) for those more complicated North and South elevator runs. However, the imperious Eiffel almost put an end to the Chicago company’s involvement with his transatlantic demands and ultimatums. In the end, each system used hydraulic power but the East and West leg French version pushed the double car for each pier up to the first platform by two conveyor belts. The longer Otis elevator runs in the North and South legs up to both the first and second platforms used hydraulic pistons to pull the double car by steel cables and became one of the most popular fair attractions.
Laborers 150 to 300 workers assembled the tower each day with a remarkable safety record of only one death considering its height and rudimentary safety measures. In explanation of that one death, it seems a weekday laborer, Angelo Scagliotti, was showing off to his girlfriend during a Sunday afternoon peek of the first platform when he plummeted to the ground. As it didn’t occur during a week of construction, it was never counted among the casualties but became embedded instead into folklore.
Opening At the dedication on May 6th, Eiffel climbed all 1,710 steps (the elevators weren’t open until May 26th) to the topmost point of the tower. He and the governmental dignitaries hoisted the French flag from its highest point to a 21-gun salute and a display of fireworks. In the end, the tower cost 6.5 million Francs, of which the French government contributed only 1.5 million with the rest coming from Eiffel himself. This, in effect, was a loan from the Eiffel company. For his additional payment, he was granted all the concessions from the elevators to the telescopes and restaurants for twenty years. After then, however, the tower was meant to be demolished.
Experiments At heart, though, Eiffel was a scientist. He had engraved 72 names of France’s most famous scientists into the edges of the largest platform and built himself an office at the top (just below the arched cupola) for experiments. His studies of wind turbulence, air pressure, gravity, and astronomical observations from its lofty perch throughout the twenty years were well known. At the contract’s expiration in 1909, the military stepped in to extend the tower’s life for budding wireless research and Eiffel’s concession was then granted for seventy more years. As Eiffel died at 91 in 1923, the concession money was kept in the family. But since 1980, the City of Paris has benefitted from its revenues.
Lights When “L’exposition Universelle 1900” on the Champ de Mars opened at the turn-of-the-century, the tower was repainted in darker shades of orange near the bottom, graduating to yellow at the top, and the elevators in the legs were replaced. But its nighttime look was also part of the celebration. The 10,000 1889 gaslit globes were deemed insufficient and outdated, so 5,000 lightbulbs outlined all four sides. Seeing it as a gigantic billboard, it attracted the Citroen automobile company, which for the 1925 Art Déco exposition erected huge flashing letters advertising the vehicle on three faces. Several garish installations were finally ended when, in 1958, golden projections on the outside of the framework and in 1985, glowing sodium lamps inside had turned the tower into one of the world’s premier nighttime attractions.
The new millennium saw both a pyrotechnic display shooting “stars” from the tower and its present light show of 20,000 twinkling xenon strobe lights (made permanent in 2003) to join sweeping dual beams at the top for an unforgettable nightly experience. Many colorings have lighted the tower with each special event (even turning it into a giant Christmas tree in 1978) and it has become an ever-changing barometer of French politics.
Today Now 324 meters tall (including the topmost transmission antennas), it is still one of the tallest freestanding towers in Europe. And standing as a giant in low-rise central Paris, it has celebrated the “Machine Age” like no other remaining structure. But it has become more than famous. Parisians may never visit it as tourists, leaving out-of-town visitors to the experience, but they would be horrified to see it disappear. The tower has not only become the symbol of Paris but also all of France. Throughout the years, the Eiffel Tower has become an international icon, joining the pyramids of Egypt, Great Wall of China, and perhaps the Empire State Building in America to signal permanence in an uncertain world.
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