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Eiffel Tower
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Also known as: Tour Eiffel
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The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
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The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last Updated: Oct 19, 2023 • Article History
Table of Contents
Category: Arts & Culture
French: Tour Eiffel . (Show more)
Recent News
Oct. 19, 2023, 9:28 PM ET (AP)
Top Questions
What was the Eiffel Tower built for?
When the French government was organizing the International Exposition of 1889 to celebrate the centenary of the French Revolution, a competition was held for designs for a suitable monument. More than 100 plans were submitted, and the Centennial Committee chose that of the noted bridge engineer Gustave Eiffel. When completed, the Eiffel Tower served as the entrance gateway to the exposition.
What does the Eiffel Tower represent?
The Eiffel Tower was initially built to serve as the entrance gateway to the International Exposition of 1889 as well as a testament to French industrial ingenuity. It has since come to represent the distinct character of the city of Paris. Its lights are also often turned on or off to reflect commemoration of major world events.
What is the Eiffel Tower made of?
The Eiffel Tower is made almost entirely of open-lattice wrought iron. Gustave Eiffel used his advanced knowledge of the behaviour of metal arch and metal truss forms under loading to design a light and airy but strong structure that presaged a revolution in civil engineering and architectural design.
Where is the Eiffel Tower located in Paris?
The Eiffel Tower can be found on the Champs de Mars at 5 Avenue Anatole France within the 7th arrondissement of Paris. Situated on the “Left Bank,” meaning it is to the south of the Seine River, the storied 7th arrondissement neighbourhood in Paris is home to many other famous tourist attractions, such as the Musée d’Orsay and the Rodin Museum.
When does the Eiffel Tower sparkle?
The Eiffel Tower can be seen sparkling every night for five minutes each hour, at the precise start of the hour. The current lighting system has been in place since 1985, though the tower has been lit up in various fashions since its 1889 debut for the International Exposition, when gaslights were used.
Eiffel Tower, Parisian landmark that is also a technological masterpiece in building-construction history. When the French government was organizing the International Exposition of 1889 to celebrate the centenary of the French Revolution, a competition was held for designs for a suitable monument. More than 100 plans were submitted, and the Centennial Committee accepted that of the noted bridge engineer Gustave Eiffel. Eiffel’s concept of a 300-metre (984-foot) tower built almost entirely of open-lattice wrought iron aroused amazement, skepticism, and no little opposition on aesthetic grounds. When completed, the tower served as the entrance gateway to the exposition.
Nothing remotely like the Eiffel Tower had ever been built; it was twice as high as the dome of St. Peter’s in Rome or the Great Pyramid of Giza. In contrast to such older monuments, the tower was erected in only about two years (1887–89), with a small labour force, at slight cost. Making use of his advanced knowledge of the behaviour of metal arch and metal truss forms under loading, Eiffel designed a light, airy, but strong structure that presaged a revolution in civil engineering and architectural design. And, after it opened to the public on May 15, 1889, it ultimately vindicated itself aesthetically.
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The Eiffel Tower stands on four lattice-girder piers that taper inward and join to form a single large vertical tower. As they curve inward, the piers are connected to each other by networks of girders at two levels that afford viewing platforms for tourists. By contrast, the four semicircular arches at the tower’s base are purely aesthetic elements that serve no structural function. Because of their unique shape, which was dictated partly by engineering considerations but also partly by Eiffel’s artistic sense, the piers required elevators to ascend on a curve; the glass-cage machines designed by the Otis Elevator Company of the United States became one of the principal features of the building, helping establish it as one of the world’s premier tourist attractions.
The tower itself is 300 metres (984 feet) high. It rests on a base that is 5 metres (17 feet) high, and a television antenna atop the tower gives it a total elevation of 330 metres (1,083 feet). The Eiffel Tower was the tallest structure in the world until the topping off of the Chrysler Building in New York City in 1929.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.
World’s Fair centerpiece
Gustave Eiffel, a French civil engineer, is usually credited with designing the tower that bears his name. However, it was actually two lesser-known men, Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier, who came up with the original drawings for the monument.
Kochlin and Nouguier were the chief engineers for the Compagnie des Etablissements Eiffel — Gustave Eiffel’s engineering firm. Together with Eiffel and a French architect, Stephen Sauvestre, the engineers submitted their plans to a contest that would determine the centerpiece for the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris.
The Eiffel company’s design won, and construction of the wrought-iron tower began in July 1887. But not everyone in Paris was thrilled with the idea of a giant metal monument looming over the city.
Even to contemporary eyes, the Eiffel Tower is unique. But in the late 19th century, nothing had been seen like it. “Modern architecture was emerging slightly in Paris before the Eiffel Tower. But it was doing it in a very shy way,” said Gudek Snajdar. Iron, which was newly popular as a building material because of the Industrial Revolution, became a cornerstone of modern architecture. But in 1887, it had only appeared internally, as support structures, or in unimportant buildings like hothouses, factories and bridges.
“The biggest problem was that they still didn’t know how to make something aesthetically appealing with the new material. When they were using it, they would try to repeat historic stone structures. It’s very visible on — for example, pillars in the Bibliotheque Ste.-Genevieve in Paris,” explained Gudek Snajdar. “However, with the Eiffel Tower they changed completely the way they were using the new material. The structure, its appearance is completely new and modern.”
When construction of the tower began on the Champs de Mars, a group of 300 artists, sculptors, writers and architects sent a petition to the commissioner of the Paris Exposition, pleading him to halt construction of the “ridiculous tower” that would dominate Paris like a “gigantic black smokestack.”
But the protests of Paris’ artistic community fell on deaf ears. Construction of the tower was completed in just over two years, on March 31, 1889.
Construction of the Eiffel Tower
Each of the 18,000 pieces used to build the tower was calculated specifically for the project and prepared in Eiffel’s factory on the outskirts of Paris. The wrought-iron structure is composed of four immense arched legs, set on masonry piers that curve inward until joining in a single, tapered tower.
Building the tower required 2.5 million thermally assembled rivets and 7,300 tons of iron. To protect the tower from the elements, workers painted every inch of the structure, a feat that required 60 tons of paint. The tower has since been repainted 18 times.
Eiffel Tower fun facts
- Gustave Eiffel used latticed wrought iron to construct the tower to demonstrate that the metal could be as strong as stone while being lighter.
- Eiffel also created the internal frame for the Statue of Liberty.
- Construction of the Eiffel Tower cost 7,799,401.31 French gold francs in 1889, or about $1.5 million.
- The Eiffel Tower is 1,063 feet (324 meters) tall, including the antenna at the top. Without the antenna, it is 984 feet (300 m).
- It was the world’s tallest structure until the Chrysler Building was built in New York in 1930.
- The tower was built to sway slightly in the wind, but the sun affects the tower more. As the sun-facing side of the tower heats up, the top moves as much as 7 inches (18 centimeters) away from the sun.
- The sun also causes the tower to grow about 6 inches.
- The Eiffel Tower weighs 10,000 tons.
- There are 5 billion lights on the Eiffel Tower.
- The French have a nickname for the tower: La Dame de Fer, “the Iron Lady.”
- The first platform is 190 feet above the ground; the second platform is 376 feet, and the third platform is almost 900 feet up.
- The Eiffel Tower has 108 stories, with 1,710 steps. However, visitors can only climb stairs to the first platform. There are two elevators.
- One elevator travels a total distance of 64,001 miles (103,000 kilometers) a year.
The Eiffel Tower is unquestionably modern in its shape, which is distinct from the Neo-Gothic, Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque styles that were popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, according to Gudek Snajdar. But its material truly made it stand out.
“The Eiffel Tower was one of the first examples of the modern architecture because of the iron,” said Gudek Snajdar. “And the fact that the building didn’t have any purpose in particular.” It existed purely to demonstrate French architectural creativity and skill with materials to the world; it was imbued with meaning but not utility.
The Eiffel Tower is also a more democratic, and therefore modern, structure than other monuments of the time, according to Gudek Snajdar. Gustave Eiffel insisted that elevators be included in the tower, but they had to be imported from an American company because no French company could meet the quality standards, Gudek Snajdar said. “Because of the escalators, the building could be used as a tower from which Parisians and their visitors could enjoy a view on their city. That was something that was before only accessible to a few wealthy people that could afford flying in a hot air balloon. But now, it was rather cheap and anyone could enjoy the view on a city from it,” she explained.
“That’s why it’s a great example of a modern architecture. It’s democratic and not only available to a few of a wealthy people. But people of a different social background could use it and enjoy it.”
