Eiffel tower in Paris is the symbol of trade and love. It is one of the seven wonders of the world. It is one of the best examples for iron cast construction on a large scale. This excellent masterpiece was designed and constructed by the French civil engineer Mr. Gustave alexander Eiffel in 1889, this took 2 years and 2 months and 5 days in exact (28 January 1887-march 31 1889) also it was fabulous work of 120-200 men. This was actually built for Paris world fair of 1889; this was to mark the 100th anniversary of the French revolution. The tower is 984ft high. There are more than 18088 pieces of iron put together with 2 and a half million nails. It remained the tallest building in the world for about 40 years. It was finally opened on march 31 1991, it was mostly used as an observation tower, radio and television towers. The height of the antenna is 324m. it is said that the first person who climbed after construction was Mr Eiffel’s daughter and confirmed that it had 1710 steps. The building consists of three floors the first platform is about 190 feet above the ground, second is about 376 ft and the third is about 900 ft above the sea level, it consists of seven electric lifts, 2 restaurants to provide meals for the visitors, the elevator takes about 8mins to take the top of the tower. It was used in the past to conduct scientific experiments by many scientists and experts, such as weather experiments, free fall of objects and atmospheric monitoring.
Repainting the tower can take up to 60 tonnes of paint, this is done every 7 years once and it takes up to 15 to 18 months to repaint the entire structure, this is done to ensure that the structure does not rust and collapse. There are 72 names engraved on the side of the tower, these are the names of the engineers, scientists and mathematicians who contributed to the design of the structure.
This tower attracts a little over 6 million visitors each year. The total tower weighs up to 10100 tonnes. The facts about are that it shrinks about 6 inches during the cold weather, an American woman Erika Eiffel with object philia married the Eiffel tower in 2007; about 20000 light bulbs are used to make it sparkle every night, which uses about7.8 million kwh of electricity per year to be lit for 5 mins each hour. Three different shades of paint to make the tower look same in every perspective
The tower has a nick name given by the French called La Dame de Fer meaning iron lady of France. The tower was built to sway sightly 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 away from the sun. the sun causes the tower to grow 6 inches.
Eiffel’s clockwork precision had not only enabled him to meet his deadline but to build the structure with the loss of only one life, who fell from the first platform while apparently showing off his girlfriend after the bell had sounded ending of the working day. Mr Nouguier and Koechlin, the two chief engineers in Eiffel’s company had the idea of largest tower in June 1884, on September 18th 1884 Eiffel registered a patent “for a new figuration allowing the construction of metal supports and pylons capable of exceeding a height of 300 meters”
For 130 years the tower has been powerful and distinctive symbol of the city of Paris, it impressed the entire world by its stature and daring design and symbolised the French as industrial genius. When its construction was started it was only meant to be temporary in the Parisians landscape; the tower had a licence only for 20 years. However, 2 million people visited the tower during the universal exposition. Following this the building also became a symbol of French industrial power. to avoid the destruction Gustave went to great lengths to prove its scientific utility. Scientific experiments were conducted in the fields of astronomy and physiology but what would save the tower was its uses ad a radio antenna tower; first it served as the military communication centre then for permanent radiotelegraphy communications. The fact the tower served many purposes during the first world war. The Eiffel tower is the part of French history.
