They were first intended to be used temporarily but you can still see them today for 5 minutes every hour from sundown until 1am.Locally nicknamed " La dame de fer" (French for "Iron Lady"), it was constructed as the centerpiece of the 1889 World's Fair, and to crown the centennial anniversary of the French Revolution. However, in 2000 over 20,000 sparkling bubbles were installed by a team of mountain climbers. The system was created by Pierre Bideau and is still the system we see today. Unlike before, the tower was now the source of light instead of being lit up from it’s surroundings. Improvements were made throughout the 20th century until 1985 when 336 sodium-vapor lights were installed inside the tower. In 1900 electric bulbs replaced the gas lights which enhanced the tower and were safer. Imagine the difficulty of illuminating the tower by lighting these gas lights. That said, the Eiffel Tower was not going to be the reason to stop calling Paris the city of lights.Įven when the tower was first built in 1889, it was decorated with thousands of gas-lights. The name was coined far before the construction of the tower. That reason is not that the Eiffel Tower is lit up. Paris is called the City of Light for a reason. All our Eiffel Tower tours include admission and some even include a Seine River cruise with a glass of champagne! There are long lines and lots of confusion. Visiting the Eiffel Tower isn’t as easy as learning its history. Eiffel did so and brought a tricolour, national flag of France, to the top. Many stayed on the first and second level instead of climbing the 1665 steps to the top of the tower. On the day of its inauguration, March 31st 1889, Eiffel took a group of governement officials and press into the tower. It was designed to have elevators at on each leg to bring guests up to each level but also has a staircase going to the top. Each leg of the tower, four in total, joins together with arches to form a first, second and third observation deck. Four massive concrete slabs would support four limestone shoes that supports the entire tower. Within 27 months the building was open and operational. Tower construction began on Champs de Mars on the 28th of January in 1887 and, for the world’s tallest and arguably most impressive structure, went very fast. It appeared pretty obvious he was creating a competition geared towards Eiffel’s design to win. He recieved little traction until 1886 when Jules Grévy, then President of France, announced a competition for a metal structure to be the centerpeice for the World’s Fair. He began politicizing his tower in order to gain the favor of local and national government. He knew they were working on something as a pet project to win the bid for the World’s Fair in 1889 so he told them to make some improvements.Ī few months later Eiffel presented the design at an art exhibition with mild acceptance. It was lucky they saw it because it was partly dismantled before burning down three years later in 1856.Įiffel saw the first drawing of the tower in 1884 but was unimpressed. It was constructed in 1853 for an industrial conference. A pointy wooden structure that existed on 42nd between 5th & 6 avenue in NYC. Inspiration for the tower came from Latting Observatory. While Gustave got the name-credit for the Eiffel Tower, it was designed by two men engineers who worked for him Émile Nouguier and Maurice Koechlin.
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