Eiffel Tower (Paris)

Champ-de-Mars

Tel. 01-44 11 23

Subway: Bir Hakeim

Busses: 42, 69, 82, 87

Open: daily

www.tour-eiffel.fr

 

The Eiffel Tower is a metal tower in the center of Paris, its most recognizable architectural landmark. Named after the chief designer Gustave Eiffel; Eiffel himself called it simply the "300-meter tower" (tour de 300 mètres).

The tower, which later became a symbol of Paris, was built in 1889 and was originally conceived as a temporary structure that served as the entrance arch to the Paris World Exhibition of 1889.

The Eiffel Tower is called the most visited paid and the most photographed attraction in the world.

 

History

Selection and preparation of the project
The World Exhibition of 1889 was held in Paris and was timed to coincide with the centenary of the French Revolution. The Paris city administration approached famous French engineers with an offer to take part in an architectural competition. At such a competition, it was necessary to create a structure that visibly demonstrates the engineering and technological achievements of the country.

Including such a proposal came to the engineering office of Gustave Eiffel. Eiffel himself did not have a ready idea, but, rummaging through the deferred projects, he found a sketch of a high-rise tower, which was made by his employee Maurice Koechlen (fr.) Russian. (or Köchlen in the German pronunciation). Another employee, Emile Nougier (fr.) Russian, then took part in finalizing the project. Drawings of a 300-meter iron tower were offered for competition. Previously, on September 18, 1884, Gustave Eiffel receives a joint patent for the project with his employees, and subsequently redeems the exclusive right from them.

The all-French competition of architectural and engineering projects, which were supposed to determine the architectural appearance of the future World Exhibition, started on May 1, 1886. 107 applicants took part in the competition, most of which, to one degree or another, repeated the tower project proposed by Eiffel. Various extravagant ideas were also under consideration, among which, for example, a giant guillotine, which was supposed to remind of the French Revolution. Another proposal was a stone tower, but calculations and past experience have shown that it would be very difficult to build a stone structure that would be even higher than the 169-meter Washington Monument, the construction of which had cost the huge efforts of the United States several years before.

The Eiffel project becomes one of the four winners, and then the engineer makes final changes to it, finding a compromise between the original purely engineering design scheme and the decorative version. In the end, the committee settles on the Eiffel plan. Having won the first prize of the competition, Eiffel enthusiastically exclaimed: "France will be the only country with a 300-meter flagpole!"

The original design by Nouguier and Coechelin was too "dry" in aesthetic terms and did not meet the requirements put forward for the buildings of the World Exhibition in Paris, the architecture of which should have been more refined. To make the tower more in line with the tastes of the demanding Parisian public, the architect Stephan Sauvestre was commissioned to work on its artistic appearance. He proposed sheathing the basement supports of the tower with stone, linking its supports and the platform of the first floor with the help of majestic arches, which would simultaneously become the main entrance to the exhibition, placing spacious glazed halls on the floors of the tower, giving the top of the tower a rounded shape and using various decorative elements to decorate it. .

In January 1887, the Eiffel, the state and the municipality of Paris signed an agreement according to which the Eiffel was granted for personal use the operating lease of the tower for a period of 25 years, and also provided for the payment of a cash subsidy in the amount of 1.5 million gold francs, which amounted to 25% of all construction costs. towers. On December 31, 1888, in order to raise the missing funds, a joint-stock company was created with an authorized fund of 5 million francs. Half of this amount is the funds contributed by three banks, the second half is the personal funds of Eiffel himself.

The final construction budget amounted to 7.8 million francs. The tower paid off during the period of the exhibition, and its subsequent operation turned out to be a very profitable business.

Construction
Construction work for two years, two months and five days (from January 28, 1887 to March 31, 1889) was carried out by 300 workers. Record-breaking construction times were facilitated by extremely high quality drawings showing the exact dimensions of 18,038 metal parts, for the assembly of which 2.5 million rivets were used.

To complete the tower on time, Eiffel used, for the most part, prefabricated parts. The rivet holes were pre-drilled at the intended locations, and two-thirds of the 2.5 million rivets were pre-installed. None of the prepared beams weighed more than 3 tons, which made it very easy to lift the metal parts to the intended places. In the beginning, high cranes were used, and when the structure outgrew them in height, mobile cranes specially designed by Eiffel picked up the work. They moved along the rails laid for future elevators. The difficulty was that the lifting device had to move along the masts of the tower along a curved path with a changing radius of curvature. The first elevators on the tower were powered by hydraulic pumps. Up to our time, two historic elevators of the company "Fives-Lille", installed in 1899 in the eastern and western supports of the tower, are used. Since 1983, their operation has been provided by an electric motor, and the hydraulic pumps have been preserved and are available for inspection.

The second and third floors of the tower were connected by a vertical elevator created by the engineer Léon Edoux (fr. Léon Édoux; Eiffel's classmate at the Central Higher Technical School). This elevator consisted of two mutually equalizing cabins. The upper cabin was raised using a hydraulic cylinder with a stroke length of 78 meters. The lower cabin at the same time served as a counterweight. Halfway to the site, at a height of 175 m from the ground, passengers had to transfer to another elevator. Water tanks installed on the floors provided the necessary hydraulic pressure. In 1983, this lift, which could not operate in winter, was replaced by an electric Otis brand lift, consisting of four cabins and providing a direct connection between the two floors.

The construction of the tower required special attention to the safety issues of continuous work, which became Eiffel's greatest concern. During the construction work there were no fatal accidents, which was a significant achievement for that time.

When arranging pits for the tower supports, due to the proximity of the Seine River, Eiffel resorted to the method that he introduced in the construction of bridges. In each of the 16 foundation caissons there was a working space, into which air was pumped under pressure. Due to the increased pressure, groundwater could not seep into it, and workers could excavate and move the soil without interference.

One of the most difficult problems for Eiffel was the first platform. Massive wooden scaffolding had to support 4 inclined supports and huge beams of the first platform. Four inclined supports rested on sand-filled metal cylinders. The sand could be released gradually and thus the supports could be set at the correct slope. Additional hydraulic lifts in the foundations of the piers made it possible to finally adjust the position of the four inclined piers, which could thus be precisely adjusted to the iron reinforcement of the first platform.

Once the platform was perfectly level, it was attached to the ramps and the lifts were removed. Then construction continued on the tower itself. The work progressed slowly but steadily. She caused the Parisians, who saw the tower growing into the sky, surprise and admiration. On March 31, 1889, less than 26 months after the start of digging pits, Eiffel was able to invite several more or less physically strong officials to the first ascent of 1710 steps.

 

After the exhibition
The original contract with Eiffel was for the dismantling of the tower 20 years after it was built.

The construction was a stunning and immediate success. Over the six months of the exhibition, more than 2 million visitors came to see the Iron Lady. By the end of the year, three-quarters of all construction costs had been recovered.

However, the creative intelligentsia of Paris and France were outraged by the daring project of the Eiffel, and, starting from the very beginning of construction, they sent indignation and demands to the Paris City Hall to stop the construction of the tower. Writers and artists feared that the metal structure would overwhelm the architecture of the city, violate the unique style of the capital, which has evolved over the centuries.

It is known that in 1887, 300 writers and artists (among them Alexandre Dumas son, Guy de Maupassant and the composer Charles Gounod) protested against the municipality, describing the construction as “useless and monstrous”, as “a ridiculous tower dominating Paris, like a giant factory chimney,” adding:
For 20 years, we will be forced to look at the disgusting shadow of the hated column of iron and screws, stretching over the city like an ink blot.

There is a historical anecdote that a certain writer (William Morris or Guy de Maupassant) regularly dined at the restaurant on the first level of the tower. When asked why he was doing this if he didn’t like the tower, the writer replied: “This is the only place in all of vast Paris where it is not visible.”

In October 1898, Eugene Ducrete conducted the first telegraph session between the Eiffel Tower and the Pantheon, the distance between which is 4 km. In 1903, General Ferrier, a pioneer in the field of wireless telegraphy, applied it to his experiments. It so happened that the tower was left at first for military purposes.

Since 1906, a radio station has been permanently placed on the tower. In 1907, a six-meter electric clock designed by the Russian engineer Romeiko-Gurko was installed on the second floor of the tower.

Even during the construction on the third tier of the tower, a meteorological laboratory was created. In 1908, the first high-altitude meteorological laboratory was organized on its basis. It existed for a long time and during its work a significant array of statistical data was accumulated.

January 1, 1910 Eiffel extends the lease of the tower for a period of seventy years. In 1914, radio interception allowed General Gallieni to organize a counterattack on the Marne during the First World War.

On November 11, 1918, the text of a radiogram from the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces, Marshal Foch, was announced from the tower to all the fighting allied forces about the signing of the Compiègne truce, which put an end to the bloodshed of the First World War.

In 1921, the first direct radio transmission from the Eiffel Tower took place. Broadcast was broadcast, which became possible due to the installation of special antennas on the tower. Since 1922, a radio program began to appear regularly, which was called the Eiffel Tower. In 1925, the first attempts were made to relay a television signal from the tower. The transmission of regular television programs began in 1935. Since 1957, a television antenna has been located on the tower, increasing the height of the steel structure to 320.75 m. In addition to it, several dozen linear and parabolic antennas have been installed on the tower that relay various radio and television programs.

 

During the German occupation

During the German occupation, the elevator drive was deliberately damaged just before the arrival of Adolf Hitler in 1940. Due to the war, it was impossible to restore the drive. While visiting Paris, Hitler was never able to get upstairs. However, a few hours after the liberation of Paris, the elevator drive started working again.

In the summer of 1944, during the battles for the capital of France, American pilot William Overstreet, piloting a Mustang fighter, flew under the arches of the Eiffel Tower and shot down a German Messerschmitt Bf 109. Avoiding anti-aircraft fire at low level, the American returned to his own, plotting a course over the Seine.

In August 1944, as the Allies were closing in on Paris, Hitler ordered that Colonel General Dietrich von Choltitz, military commander of the Greater Paris district and head of the garrison, destroy the Eiffel Tower along with the rest of the city's landmarks. However, von Choltitz disobeyed the order.

Anniversary Celebrations
On May 15, 2019, the 130th anniversary of the Eiffel Tower was solemnly celebrated in Paris. The media part of the holiday was preceded by a charity tour for schoolchildren: by the decision of the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, about 1,300 boys and girls from all over the country were able to view the world landmark for free that day. In the evening at 20:30, the songs of the French singer and composer Jeanne Added sounded from the stage. After dark, the contours of the tower were illuminated by a colorful light show using laser projectors. Under a potpourri of fashionable French melodies, the life story of the famous monument was told. The festive performance, directed by Bruno Seilier, was repeated three times that evening (every hour from 10:00 pm). The last session was held in silence: this was done to protect the peace of the residents of nearby houses.

Currently
The tower is available for visits every day. For public access to the top, there are four points for selling tickets and passing inside the building: north, south, west and east. There are two categories of excursions: to the second tier for 16 euros and to the very top for 25 euros. Children and the disabled are given discounts on entrance tickets.

Buffets are provided on the first and second floors of the tower, where ordinary tourists can buy a slice of pizza and a glass of juice for 7.5 euros. Also on the first tier of the tower (58 meters above the ground) there is a restaurant, which is called 58 Tour Eiffel. A typical two-course lunch will cost you 18 euros here. Above, on the 2nd floor, there is a more expensive restaurant - Le Jules Verne restaurant (a modest lunch costs about 85 euros per person). The third floor at the top of the tower is occupied by the Champagne Bar, where one glass of sparkling drink costs 10 euros.

 

Description

Location
The tower was erected on the Champ de Mars opposite the Jena bridge across the river Seine, Quai Branly. On the map of the Paris metro station: Bir-Hakeim.

Height
The Eiffel Tower was originally 300.65 meters above ground level. The height together with the new antenna is 330 meters (2022).

For more than 40 years, the Eiffel Tower was the tallest building in the world, almost 2 times higher than the tallest buildings in the world of that time - the pyramids of Cheops (146.6 m), Cologne (157 m) and Ulm Cathedral (161 m), - until In 1930, it was not surpassed by the Chrysler Building in New York.

Color
Throughout its history, the tower has repeatedly changed the color of its painting - from yellow to red-brown. In recent decades, the Eiffel Tower has been invariably painted in the so-called "brown-eiffel" - an officially patented color close to the natural shade of bronze.

The Iron Lady resists the ravages of time with 57 tons of paint that needs to be renewed every 7 years.

Design features
The mass of the metal structure is about 7300 tons. The foundation is made of concrete blocks. The fluctuations of the tower during storms do not exceed 15 cm.

The lower floor is a pyramid (129.3 m each side at the base), formed by 4 columns, connected at a height of 57.63 m by an arched vault; the first platform of the Eiffel Tower rests on the vault. The platform is a square (65 meters across).

On this platform rises the second pyramid-tower, also formed by 4 columns, connected by a vault, on which is located (at a height of 115.73 m) the second platform (a square 35 m in diameter).

Four columns rising on the second platform, pyramidally approaching and gradually intertwining, form a colossal pyramidal column (190 m), bearing the third platform (at a height of 276.13 m), also square (16.5 m in diameter); a lighthouse with a dome rises on it, above which there is a platform (1.4 m in diameter) at a height of 300 m.

Stairs (1792 steps) and elevators lead to the tower.

Restaurant halls were erected on the first platform; on the second platform were tanks with engine oil for a hydraulic lifting machine (elevator) and a restaurant in a glass gallery. The third platform housed the astronomical and meteorological observatories and the physics office.

The Eiffel Tower is not particularly affected by the wind. Even the strongest wind that happened in Paris (about 180 km / h) deflected the top of the tower by only 12 cm. The Sun acts on it much more strongly: the sunny side of the tower expands from the heat so that the top deviates to the side by 18 cm.

Form
The erected tower shook with a bold decision of its form. Eiffel was severely criticized for the project and simultaneously accused of trying to create something artistic and non-artistic.

Together with his engineers, specialists in bridge construction, Eiffel was engaged in calculations of wind force, knowing full well that if they were building the tallest structure in the world, then first of all they must make sure that it was resistant to wind loads. In an interview with Le Temps on February 14, 1887, Eiffel remarked:
Why such a strange shape? wind loads. I believe that the curvature of the four outer edges of the monument is dictated by both mathematical calculations and aesthetic considerations.
translated from the French newspaper Le Temps, February 14, 1887

inscriptions
Under the first balcony, on all four sides of the parapet are engraved the names of 72 outstanding French scientists and engineers, as well as those who made a special contribution to the creation of Gustave Eiffel. These inscriptions appeared at the beginning of the 20th century and were restored in 1986-1987 by the Société Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel company, hired by the city hall to operate the Eiffel Tower. The tower itself is the property of the city of Paris.

 

Lighting

The Eiffel Tower was first illuminated on its opening day in 1889. Then it consisted of 10 thousand gas lamps, two searchlights and a lighthouse mounted on top, the light of which was painted in blue, white and red - the colors of the national flag of France. In 1900, electric lamps appeared on the structures of the Iron Lady. And the current golden lighting was first turned on on December 31, 1985[28]. In 1925, André Citroën placed an advertisement on the tower, which he called "The Eiffel Tower on fire." About 125,000 light bulbs were installed on the tower. One after another, ten images flashed on the tower: the silhouette of the Eiffel Tower, starry rain, the flight of comets, the signs of the Zodiac, the year the tower was built, the current year, and, finally, the name Citroen. This promotion lasted until 1934 and the tower was the tallest advertising space in the world.

In the summer of 2003, the tower was "dressed" in a new lighting attire. In a few months, a team of 30 high-altitude workers entangled the tower structures with 40 kilometers of wires and installed 20,000 light bulbs, made to order from one of the French companies. The new illumination, which cost 4.6 million euros, was reminiscent of the one that was first switched on on the tower on the night of the New Year 2000, when the tower, usually illuminated by golden yellow lanterns, in a matter of seconds dressed in a fabulous glow winking with silvery lights.

From July 1 to December 31, 2008, when France held the presidency of the EU, blue lighting with stars (reminiscent of the flag of Europe) worked on the tower.

 

Service

Tower painting
One of the main ways to protect a metal tower from destruction due to corrosion is to paint the surface of the elements that form the tower. This process takes 18 months and is carried out by a team of 25 highly skilled workers. The structure is carefully inspected beforehand, and the areas where the anti-corrosion coating is especially badly damaged are cleaned and covered with a new layer of protection. The rest of the tower surface is cleaned with high pressure steam. Then the whole structure is painted in two layers. This consumes about 60 tons of paint.

The safety of workers and visitors is ensured by a system of insurances, as well as "safety nets" that protect against falling flakes of old paint and drops of fresh paint.

In the process of applying an anti-corrosion coating, the technical condition of the structure is also inspected, and worn elements are replaced.

Energy supply
A green modification project for the Eiffel Tower is currently underway. About half of the hot water needs of the two pavilions are provided by a 10 m2 array of solar thermal panels and heat pumps. Energy-saving LED lighting and a rainwater collection and reuse system were also installed on the tower. In February 2015, Urban Green Energy installed two wind turbines capable of generating 10,000 kWh of electricity per year, equivalent to the energy used by a commercial space on the ground floor of the Eiffel Tower.

 

Events and facts

On February 4, 1912, the Austrian tailor Franz Reichelt jumped from the 60-meter height of the first level of the Eiffel Tower, wearing a parachute cape of his own design on his back. The parachute did not open, and the inventor crashed to death.
In January 1956, a sudden fire broke out and damaged the upper part of the structure.
In 2002, the number of visitors to the tower exceeded 200 million.
In the winter of 2004/2005, an ice skating rink was filled for the first time on the lower platform of the Eiffel Tower to advertise Paris as a candidate for hosting the 2012 Summer Olympics. Since then, the ice rink on the ground floor of the tower has been flooded regularly.
The last fire occurred on July 22, 2003.
The last case of suicide dates back to June 25, 2012.
The last (false) report about the mining of the tower dates back to March 30, 2013.
The Eiffel Tower was ranked number one in a travel company's list of the most disappointing tourist attractions in 2007. The Eiffel Tower, according to the survey, expressed disappointment over a quarter of those surveyed: they said that it was too crowded to enjoy the view.
In the world there are many copies of the Eiffel Tower of various sizes.

Tower scam
For 83 years of existence, the famous tower was sold - in all its form - at least two dozen times.
In 1925, the swindler Viktor Lustig managed to "sell" the tower twice for scrap.
In 1954, a Swedish citizen, who introduced himself as the general director of a joint-stock company, offered to cover the tower with anti-corrosion paint. Having received a loan to buy 50 tons of dye, he disappeared in an unknown direction.
In 1960, the English greengrocer David Sams sold the Eiffel Tower to a Dutch firm as scrap metal. He managed to prove (with the help of false documents) that he was instructed by the Parisian municipality to dismantle the tower. As a result, the Englishman went to jail, and the company was left without its millions.
For a long time, tickets were sold with two perforated corners. The controllers at the foot of the tower tore off one corner and let the sightseer go to the elevator inside one of the “legs” of the tower, which takes you to the 1st platform. There was a ticket office on this site where you could buy a ticket to climb to the very top of the tower (in an elevator located along the central axis of the entire structure). But, if you do not buy a second ticket, but present the original ticket (with one corner already torn off at the bottom), then the controllers would tear off the second corner, and without any additional costs (for the second ticket) you could go upstairs.