la tour eiffel facts in french

27 Fun Facts About The Eiffel Tower In Paris You Probably Didn’t Know

Want to learn more about the Iron Lady? This post will give you all the  fun facts about the Eiffel Tower  you probably didn’t know before!

The Eiffel Tower or La Tour Eiffel in French is one of the most iconic monuments of France and the world. It has mesmerized and captured everyone’s attention since its construction in 1889.

Paris is recognized as the City of Love and, by extension, the Eiffel Tower is considered one of the most romantic attractions in the city .

It is one of the Parisian landmarks that people fly from across the world to come and see at least once in their lifetime and it has also become one of the most popular proposal sites in the world.

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However, before it became the sensation it is today, it was considered ugly by Parisians who deemed it unfit among the city’s historical buildings, and its lifespan was meant to be only 20 years.

But as its fame grew, it was decided that it would be permanent and as a Francophile, I couldn’t be any happier.

If you want to know some interesting information about this famous attraction, here are 27 fun facts about the Eiffel Tower in Paris that you probably didn’t know.

Before You Go, Here’s How to Plan Your Visit To Paris: Practical Quick Tips

WHERE TO STAY Best Eiffel Tower Views:  Hôtel Le Walt  (9.0) Luxury stay:  Pullman Paris Tour Eiffel  (8.2) Mid-range stay:  Hôtel Eiffel  (8.7) Budget Stay:  People – Paris Bercy  (8.9) Apartment Rental:  Résidence Charles Floquet  (9.1)  

BEST GUIDED TOURS Louvre Museum guided tour : (4.5/5) Seine River Dinner Cruise : (4.7/5) Montmartre Walking Tour : (4.8/5) Le Marais Walking Food Tour : (4.5/5) Versailles Guided Tour : (4.8/5) Eiffel Tower Guided Tour : (4.4/5) 

• Considering travel insurance for your trip? World Nomads offers coverage for more than 150 adventure activities as well as emergency medical, lost luggage, trip cancellation, and more.
• Prepare your trip extensively with this Paris Travel guidebook .
• Don’t forget a universal travel adapter , a travel neck pouch , and comfortable walking shoes .
• Consider getting either the museum pass or the Paris city pass if you plan to visit many attractions. The city pass comes with free transportation and access to the hop-on-hop-off bus. You can read my Paris museum pass review to see if it’s right for you.
• Book this private transfer from CDG airport to Paris to avoid the hustle of figuring out how to get to Paris.

Fun Facts About the Eiffel Tower

It may not be a world wonder but it is a wonder of Paris nonetheless, one that houses a few interesting anecdotes within its pillars.

To learn more about it, here are some of the interesting facts about the Eiffel Tower from its reason for construction to historical events.

1. It’s the most visited paid tourist attraction in the world

About 7 million people visit La Tour Eiffel each year making it the most visited paid attraction in the world.

Since its opening, a whopping 300 million visitors have been to this tourist attraction.

This is not counting the people who sit at Champ de Mars admiring it and the countless others who take photos with it as a backdrop from various Parisian streets , alleys, and rooftops but rather those who climb to its various floor to admire the beauty of Paris from above.

With those figures, it takes the crown of the most visited PAID tourist attraction worldwide.

If you also want to add to those figures, you can book this Eiffel Tower entry ticket to climb to its summit and take in the stunning views of Paris. Alternatively, you can opt for this Eiffel Tower guided tour to learn more about its magnificent history from a friendly tour guide.

You can also check out my recommended tours and activities in Paris in the widget below   all offered by my favorite tour provider GetYourGuide .

2. The Eiffel Tower was Initially meant to be temporary

One of the surprising yet interesting Eiffel Tower facts most people don’t know is that it was initially meant to be temporary.

To commemorate 100 years of the French Revolution, Paris was set to host the Exposition Universelle or World’s Fair in 1889 and the Eiffel Tower was built to mark this occasion.

It was to be dismantled after 20 years in 1909. Then, the French realized that the antenna added at the top by Gustave Eiffel could be used for wireless communication.

In fact, this antenna helped the French immensely during World War I by jamming German signals. Post that, it has been used for radio and TV broadcasts.

Related post:  Fun facts About Paris

3. The Eiffel Tower Was Once Sold

One of the unbelievable facts about the Eiffel Tower is that it was once sold! Yes, you read that right.

A con artist named Victor Lustig will forever go down in history as the man who sold the Eiffel Tower not once but twice. This is quite an interesting story you need to read.

So how does one go about selling the Eiffel Tower? In 1925, Lustig found himself in Paris and luckily landed on a newspaper that mentioned that the Eiffel Tower was in ruins and the government didn’t have enough funds to maintain it.

As a smart con artist, he knew this was his next con! He forged documents showing that he was a government official and all the necessary documents he would need to pull off this con.

He met with a group of scrap metal dealers and convinced them that the government was ready to sell the Eiffel Tower as scrap and since they didn’t want the public to know of this arrangement, he was chosen to oversee the sale.

Several metal dealers listened and believed his arguments. Still, he landed on one of them — André Poisson, who seemed like easy prey as he was insecure about his position and he wanted to prove that he deserved to be among the respectable people of Paris.

The deal was successful and Poisson paid the amount Lustig was asking for the Eiffel Tower and an extra as a bribe to make sure he was the chosen one! After the con, Lustig fled France for Austria.

During this time, he kept checking the newspapers to see if Poisson had reported the scam but since he knew Poisson would be embarrassed for the world to know that he fell for such a scam, the crime was never reported.

After a few months, Lustig decided to come back to France to run the same con but this time the police were alerted. He didn’t wait to be captured so fled to the US.

Related Post: Interesting Facts About Sacre Coeur

Eiffel Tower design — Gustave Eiffel , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

4. Gustave Eiffel technically did NOT design the Eiffel Tower

Although his namesake, the Eiffel Tower, was NOT ACTUALLY designed by Gustave Eiffel himself.

His company was the one awarded with the charge of the design and construction of the Tower.

Gustave, who put in the most investment, in turn, entrusted this task to two of his senior engineers, Maurice Koechlin, whom he trusted a lot and worked with frequently, and Emile Nouguier and architect Stephen Sauvestre.

The 2 engineers were inspired by a 19 th -century bridge design used to build this monument but since Gustave Eiffel was in charge of its construction, it was named after him and not Emile Nouguier who came up with the very first design of the tower which he had named 300-Meter-Tall Pylon.

5. The amount of metal and labor used was a lot

This might sound like an obvious fact given the size of the Eiffel Tower, but do you know roughly how much material and labor were involved?

Here’s an insight! 7,000+ metric tons of puddling iron were used to produce 18,000 pieces of wrought iron that make up the structure.

In addition, millions of rivets, nuts, bolts, and tons of paint were also used. All this involved 300+ steelworkers working tirelessly to give us this landmark.

Related post:  Interesting Facts About the Louvre Museum

6. The Eiffel Tower is Very Heavy

With the amount of iron used, it doesn’t come as a surprise that the Eiffel Tower is very heavy.

It weighs a whopping 10,100 tons! Of that, 7,300 tons is for the metal frame and the extra 60 tons is for the coat of paint it wears.

The Eiffel Tower in 1888 – http://expositions.bnf.fr/universelles/ , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

7. It Took Two years, two months, and five days to complete the Tower

While still talking about its construction, another Eiffel Tower fact you should know is that the whole thing took two years, two months, and five days to be completed.

Construction started on 26th January 1887 and ended on 31st March 1889 which was quite an impressive amount of time to put together such a landmark.

8. The Eiffel Tower’s height changes

Another interesting fact about the Eiffel Tower is that its height changes.

The original height of the Eiffel Tower was 300m (985 ft) but because of the amount of metal used, it undergoes the natural phenomenon of thermal expansion.

Hence, the structure shrinks during the winter due to contraction and expands during the summer but the beauty of it is that the engineers put it together so that it doesn’t expand by more than 5-7 inches (15 cm) at a time.

It also tilts away from the sun on expansion due to unequal heat distribution.

Aside from the expansion, the height of the Eiffel Tower has immensely increased due to the addition of radio and TV antennas.

As of February 2023, the Eiffel Tower measures 330 meters (1,083 feet) and who knows maybe it will keep growing.

Related post:  Cool Facts About French Food

9. The Tower sways with the wind

One would assume that such a big and heavy structure can withstand the force of nature, but the Eiffel Tower sways if the wind is too strong.

Its base is heavier than the apex that thins out at the top, which could be one of the reasons why the Tower moves with powerful gusts of wind at the top.

But the engineers took this into account while building it. It was designed in such a way as not to sway more than 4.5 inches or 11 cm.

Today, though rare, the tower is closed off to public access when the wind is too strong.

Painting the Eiffel Tower in 1910 – Agence Rol , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

10. The Eiffel Tower has changed colors over the years

I don’t mean personality-wise but the Eiffel Tower’s color has changed since it was built.

The Tower has to be periodically repainted, which is done by hand to protect it from the effects of heavy machinery, and the engineers would choose the colors used when undertaking the job.

When it was built in 1889, the initial coat of the Eiffel Tower was brick-red/Venetian red.

Subsequently, it was painted ochre-brown in 1892, shades of yellow in 1899, and yellowish-brown in 1907, and since 1968, it’s an “Eiffel Tower brown,” or the bronze that we now know it to be.

11. The Eiffel Tower has to be repainted by hand every 7 years

In connection to the previous point, the Eiffel Tower paint wears off with time and due to forces of nature like rain.

Gustave Eiffel calculated an approximate interval of 7 years between repaints so that is what has been maintained on average till now.

The Tower has been repainted 18 times since its initial coat, with a recent one undertaken ahead of the 2024 Olympics. Because of the periodic repaints, it does not rust despite the amount of iron used.

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12. It is also painted in an ombre manner

The Eiffel Tower is split into 3 levels — bottom, middle, and top. For each section, a different shade is applied.

Hence, three distinct coats of paint having different tones or color variations are used for the top, middle, and bottom floors.

The bottom level gets the darkest color of the lot, while the shades get lighter with altitude.

This is done so that the structure stands out against the sky while also giving the effect of color uniformity.

13. The Eiffel Tower is Made of Iron, not Steel

While still talking about its physical looks, here is another one of the Eiffel Tower facts you may not know.

Contrary to what many may believe, the Eiffel Tower is made of iron, not steel. The iron used was obtained from Pompey forges in Eastern France.

14. It has 72 names engraved on it

Though Gustave Eiffel is the most resounding name regarding the Eiffel Tower’s history, other names are connected to the landmark.

There are 72 names engraved on the borders of each 4 sides of the tower under the balcony of the first floor.

It is believed that Gustave wanted to celebrate smart minds, scholars, and scientists who lived and worked between 1789 and 1889 as a way of recognizing their contribution to science. These include engineers, railway specialists, mechanics, mathematicians, and more.

Though the names had been covered during a paint job at the beginning of the 20th century, they were restored in 1986 and 1987 and can be seen today.

15. There Was An ice rink inside the Eiffel Tower Once

You’d be surprised to know what the Eiffel Tower holds inside it. One of the interesting facts about the Eiffel Tower for kids and adults alike is that there was an ice rink once.

It was opened in 2015 and was functional during the peak winter from December 2016 to February 2017.

The rink was built on the 1st floor, 57 meters (187 ft) above the ground. Before this, a roller-skating rink was built there in 2006, and a diving pool in 2007.

Erika Aya Eiffel , CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Related Post: Interesting Facts About the Arc de Triomphe

16. Someone actually married the Eiffel Tower

Before I tell you about this weird and unorthodox fact about the Eiffel Tower, you should know that there is a condition called paraphilia which involves people developing significant relationships with inanimate objects.

A woman named Erika Aya , a competitive archer from the USA has this condition and that’s where this fact stems from.

She “married” the Eiffel Tower in 2007 in a commitment ceremony subsequently calling herself Mrs. Eiffel or Erika Eiffel.

17. It was the tallest structure in the world for 4 decades

Until 1930, the Eiffel Tower stood higher than any building or structure in the world. Then the Chrysler Building in New York at 318.8 m (1046 ft) surpassed it.

In 1931, the Empire State Building measuring 443.1 m (1454 ft) overtook the Chrysler Building which meant that the Eiffel Tower was no longer the tallest structure on earth.

However, an antenna added to the Eiffel Tower increased its height by 30m (98 ft) to reach 330 meters (1,083 feet) as of 2023, making it taller than the Chrysler Building but still couldn’t beat the Empire State Building.

18. It’s technically illegal to photograph the Eiffel Tower at night

This might be one of the most astonishing facts about the Eiffel Tower. For those unaware, the Eiffel Tower lights up every top of the hour each night in a sparkling and twinkling display of light. For this effect, roughly 20,000 lights are used.

You might have seen many images of this on social media, however, you could be fined for taking a photograph of this light display and sharing it without authorization.

Since it is copyrighted under French law, the French government classifies it as artwork that can’t be redistributed without appropriate authorization.

Don’t get me wrong though! You can absolutely take photos of the Eiffel Tower at night and post them on social media but what is considered illegal is professionally printing those photos and selling them or using them in commercials without proper authorization.

Related Post: Best places to take photos of the Eiffel Tower

19. The Eiffel Tower was not liked or well-received by Parisians

Another one of the Eiffel Tower interesting facts is that some Parisians were not happy about the Eiffel Tower being built.

Hundreds of people, including local artists, and intellectuals like French author Guy de Maupassant and Charles Garnier, the architect of Palais Garnier protested against the Eiffel Tower being built.

In fact, Guy de Maupassant hated it so much that he ate his lunch at the Eiffel Tower as it was the only place he could not see this “ugly” structure.

They claimed that it would ruin the beauty of Paris. A petition was also signed to this effect and sent to the newspaper and the French government condemning it.

In their words, it was called a monstrosity and ugly structure but fortunately, nobody paid heed to it, and the Eiffel Tower was built anyway.

Related Post: Interesting Facts About Palais Garnier

20. A mayor rode down the Eiffel Tower stairs

Here’s another fun fact about the Eiffel Tower. In 1923, the future Mayor of Montmartre, journalist Pierre Labric, cycled nearly 350 stairs from the first to the ground floor of the Eiffel Tower. The reason it became an issue was that he did so without permission.

After this event, several others took permission and rode up or down the stairs of the Eiffel Tower. In most cases, it was to celebrate the Tower’s anniversaries.

21. The Eiffel Tower was almost demolished

Germany occupied France from 1940 to 1944. Towards the end, Hitler was about to lose the capital to the Allied Forces and that’s when he ordered the then-military governor of Paris, Dietrich von Choltitz to destroy the capital city and everything in it, including the Eiffel Tower.

Fortunately, von Choltitz did not follow through with this order and the Eiffel Tower still stands.

Otherwise, Hitler would have been responsible for destroying one of France’s most iconic landmarks .

22. It is the most replicated monument in the world

Although the Eiffel Tower might not be included as a wonder of the world, it has inspired people worldwide to make replicas of it.

You will find its lookalikes in China, Japan, the USA (Las Vegas and Ohio), Macau, Greece, and Paris, Texas. Most look similar with variations in size or design.

23. The Eiffel Tower is Also the Most Photographed Monument in the World

Being an iconic structure, it shouldn’t surprise you that it is the most photographed monument in the world.

More than 7 million people photograph this famous landmark every year.

Related Post: Fun Facts About France

24. There’s an apartment at the top of the Tower

Want to know more Eiffel Tower fun facts? Here’s another interesting one.

Although Gustave Eiffel did not design the tower, when his engineers built it, he got a private apartment made for himself at the top of the tower, though he never slept in it since it had no bedroom.

Given its uniqueness, he hosted some famous guests there, including Thomas Edison, and no one else was allowed to enter it unless he invited them.

The apartment has wax figures of Eiffel himself, Thomas Edison, and Claire, Eiffel’s daughter. It is now open to the public and you can even tour it on certain days.

25. The Tower housed a laboratory

The 3rd floor of the Eiffel Tower had a meteorology lab. Gustave Eiffel used it for personal research and conducted various scientific experiments in physics and aerodynamics.

This lab is said to be the oldest working aeronautical lab. In 1909, a wind tunnel was also built at the foot of the tower which was subsequently used by other scientists.

Later, a weather station was built at the top. The tower is also where cosmic rays were discovered by physicist and Jesuit priest Theodor Wulf.

26. There’s also a military bunker underneath the Tower

Of all the Eiffel Tower facts, this should be the most fascinating. If you’ve read my post on interesting facts about the Paris Catacombs , you would know about the military bunkers there.

Turns out, that is not the only place with bunkers. A caged entrance near the structure’s south pillar leads to a secret underground military bunker beneath the Eiffel Tower.

The French are said to have used this when the Germans occupied France. It was eventually converted into a mini museum which you can tour.

Related Post: Interesting Facts About Mona Lisa

27. The Eiffel Tower Has a Bollywood connection

We all know that many movies have been pictured using the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop or a prop.

Superman II (1980), A View to a Kill (1987), Ratatouille (2007), and Men in Black (2019) are some of them.

In addition to Hollywood movies, Bollywood films also incorporated the tower in the storyline, like Evening in Paris (1967) and Queen (2013).

But, the Eiffel Tower has another Bollywood connection. One of the descendants of Maurice Koechlin, one of the engineers entrusted with the Eiffel Tower’s design, is a national award-winning Bollywood actress, Kalki Koechlin.

Final Thoughts on the Interesting Facts About the Eiffel Tower

How many of these interesting facts about the Eiffel Tower did you know? Do you think they convinced you enough to visit the famous monument?

If yes, the next time you visit this landmark, don’t forget to look for some of these. And if you take a tour guide, see if they mention any of these facts.

And if you know more such fun facts about the Eiffel Tower, let me know in the comments below. I’d love to read about them.

Check out these posts to help you plan your trip to Paris

• Fun things to do in Paris on a Rainy day
• Famous Paintings in Paris
• Where to Find the Best Macarons in Paris
• Famous Paintings at the Louvre Museum
• Best Covered Passages of Paris
• Most beautiful neighborhoods of Paris
• Fun free things to do in Paris
• Famous Churches to Visit in Paris
• Best Museums in Paris
• Tips for Visiting the Eiffel Tower
• How to spend One day In Paris

Was this post on the interesting facts about the Eiffel Tower helpful? Then please consider sharing them with others .

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Esther is the face and voice behind Dreams in Paris! She has always been obsessed with Paris even before she moved there. She has lived in Paris for a couple of years, and that obsession has not changed! That love for Paris, plus her passion for writing led to the birth of Dreams in Paris! She now shares all the practical tips and guides she’s picked along the way to help you plan a memorable trip to the city of love! You can learn more about her here !

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12 terrific facts about the Eiffel Tower

This article contains affiliate links. This means French Together may earn a commission for purchases made through these links. Read our full affiliate disclosure .

The Eiffel Tower –   la Tour Eiffel  in French — is one of the world’s most famous, recognizable landmarks. But despite its fame, there are a few things you may not know about la dame de fer.  

In honor of its reopening, here are twelve fascinating facts about the Eiffel Tower:

1. The Tower was an intentional tourist attraction.

Many monuments in Paris were built for other purposes and have become tourist draws, but the Eiffel Tower was specifically constructed to be a sight worth seeing and visiting. Its construction started in January 1887 and it was completed in March 31, 1889, just in time to be the star attraction of the 1889 Exposition Universelle (World’s Fair).

The Tower’s popularity has endured: It welcomes nearly 7 million visitors a year  (in non-pandemic times)!  

Want to join these visitors? You will find the famous Eiffel Tower on the Champ de Mars at 5 Avenue Anatole  France in Paris’ 7th arrondissement.

2. The Eiffel Tower wasn’t meant to be permanent.

Like many structures made for the Exposition Universelle, the Eiffel Tower was intended to be dismantled at some point after the event ended.

This was at least some consolation to the many Parisian artists and aesthetes who didn’t like the Tower – among them Guy de Maupassant and Charles Garnier, architect of Paris’s stunning main opera house, often called the Palais Garnier.

But by the end of the Exposition Universelle, most people had really taken a liking to it. Plus, its impressive height (at the time, it was the tallest building in the world) made it an excellent radio tower.  

Fortunately, the Eiffel Tower could last longer than originally planned, thanks to engineering genius and the fact that….

3. The Eiffel Tower is made of puddle iron.

That’s why la dame de fer  (the Iron Lady) is a common French nickname for the Tower. As the Tower’s official site explains, puddling is a process that purifies and strengthens iron.   

4. The Eiffel Tower and Statue of Liberty are connected.

Gustave Eiffel’s engineering firm also built the metal framework inside the Statue of Liberty, which was constructed in Paris and sent as a gift from France to the United States, its longtime ally, in 1886, in honor of the 100 years of the US Constitution.

5. Eiffel had an apartment at the top of the Tower.

Eiffel had a private apartment built at the top of the Tower, although it was really more of an office and place to receive prestigious visitors, like Thomas Edison. In his honor, the office has been preserved  and can be visited. The Eiffel Tower’s official website features a few images of it  (including the wax figures of Eiffel, his daughter, and Thomas Edison that are its current permanent residents).  

6. The Eiffel Tower has changed color – and it will again.

Originally, the Eiffel Tower was painted reddish brown. Due to weather conditions, the pigment erodes and every seven years the Tower needs to be repainted . This has lead to some creative forays into color, including shades of yellow. The current color, sometimes called “Eiffel Tower brown”, has been used since the 1950’s. But according to a number of sources, the Tower will be repainted  in honor of the 2024 Olympics (which will be held in Paris), this time to a yellow-brown.

7. The Tower was involved in a World War I battle.

In 1914, a radio transmitter in the Eiffel Tower jammed the Germans’ radio communications, helping the Allies win the First Battle of the Marne .  

8. There’s writing on the Eiffel Tower.

If you look closely, above the lovely lace-like metal arches that rise up from its base, there are names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower. These are the names of seventy-two great French engineers, scientists, and mathematicians .  

9. The Eiffel Tower is still the tallest structure in Paris.

When it was built, the Eiffel Tower was the tallest man-made structure in the world. It originally stood at 1024 feet (312.12 meters), and has subsequently grown a bit, due to an altered radio tower.

It only lost the title of “tallest building” in 1930, with the completion of construction on the Empire State Building. Since then, it’s been surpassed by many other buildings, as well.

Currently measuring 1063 feet high (324 meters), the Eiffel Tower remains the tallest tower in the world not built on a platform. It’s also the tallest structure in Paris  and the second-tallest in France.  

10. The Eiffel Tower sparkles (sometimes).

After nightfall and until 1am, every hour on the hour, the Eiffel Tower sparkles for five minutes. This is due to an installation of 20,000 lamps  that cover it. Fortunately, these lamps are low in energy consumption.

Unfortunately, while the Tower itself is in the public domain under French law, rights to the light installation belong to its creator, Pierre Bideau, who set up the sparkle in 1985. This means that media outlets, websites (including ours!), etc., aren’t allowed to share photos or films of the Tower when it’s sparkling, unless given express permission.

It’s a shame that this beautiful sight can’t be shared freely. So if you come to Paris, plan to be watching the Tower at the start of a nighttime hour. You can also see the Tower sparkling via YouTube videos that apparently have been granted permission to show it. One of my favorites is this lovely view; you can catch the Tower turn from illuminated to sparkling  at the 11:40 minute mark.  

You may also spot the sparkling Eiffel Tower in some movies and TV shows that take place in Paris.

11. You can’t take the stairs all the way to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

If you’re the energetic sort, you may forgo a ride in the Tower’s lower lifts and instead take the stairs to the second floor. From there, though, you’ll have to switch to an elevator- the staircase that goes all the way to the top isn’t open to the public.

12. The Eiffel Tower took about two years to build.

Considering it was the tallest man-made structure in the world at the time of its construction and considering the fact that technology and tools were more limited in 1887 than they are today, I think it’s pretty impressive that the Eiffel Tower took only two years, two months, and five days to build, don’t you?

Where can I learn more about the Eiffel Tower?

I hope you’ve enjoyed these Eiffel Tower facts. If you’d like to learn more, the Tower’s official website features lots of wonderful information and resources  that are also a great way to vicariously visit.  You can also watch this short English-language documentary to get a good foundation of knowledge about the iconic monument . If that whets your appetite for knowledge, there are many other Eiffel Tower documentaries online as well, in both English and French.

Do you want to visit the Eiffel Tower, or have you already been? Feel free to share in the comments!  

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Alysa Salzberg

Alysa Salzberg is an American writer, worrier, teacher, and cookie enthusiast who has lived in Paris, France, for more than a decade. She has taught English and French for more than ten years, most notably as an assistante de langue vivante for L'Education Nationale. She recently published her first novel, Hearts at Dawn , a "Beauty and the Beast" retelling that takes place during the 1870 Siege of Paris. You can read about her adventures here , or feel free to stop by her website .

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25 Fun Facts about the Eiffel Tower

Last Updated:  17 April 2024

The Eiffel Tower  sounds like a magical name. What would Paris be like without the Eiffel Tower? Well, Paris had already proved its charm to the world before the tower was even built with many amazing monuments. Let’s name a few: the Louvre , the Arc de Triomphe and Notre-Dame .

Now the Eiffel Tower surpasses them all in height. The iron tower can be seen from each of these three buildings from a different and interesting angle.

But instead of writing about facts that travel guides would generally tell you, I choose to unveil a few things about the tower. I compiled them into 25 fun facts about the Eiffel Tower…

Fun facts about the Eiffel Tower – Presentation

How many platforms make up the tower.

There are three different levels or platforms:

• level 1 is 57 m high,
• level 2 stands at 115 m and hosts the Jules Verne restaurant.
• The highest – level 3 – reaches 276 m (not quite making it to 300 m!). It can be reached by lift only.

The Eiffel Tower Discovery Course

Register for our new online discovery course: “The Secrets of the Eiffel Tower”.

You’ll probably know that the Eiffel Tower is a monument overrun with tourists. In fact, most visitors have no idea of its true value. What if the Eiffel Tower has kept some secrets away from the millions of visitors? To get to the bottom of this, we went down a rabbit hole of research. And found out that the Eiffel Tower was much more than a mass-tourism icon. It contains a lot of fascinating facts that explain why it is so popular today. The Eiffel Tower is like a treasure chest that hides many secrets. And to open the chest, one needs to have the key And that key is CURIOSITY!

We put a lot of thought into how to structure this course so that it can help you uncover the secrets of the Eiffel Tower. The course is intended to help many to:

• gather info for your next trip to Paris
• enjoy some armchair travel
• simply satisfy your curiosity
• learn new things just for the joy of learning
• delve into the modern history of Paris
• prepare a school presentation

The online course is a unique product entirely dedicated to the Eiffel Tower. You will learn unusual things about the Eiffel Tower that no tourist guides will have told you! Together, we’ll go beyond the tourist experience of the Eiffel Tower and understand its true value. You will find out interesting facts that many others don’t… even the French themselves! Yes, you will even be able to show off your knowledge to Parisians! Oh là là!

The online course is made up of a series of 4 modules and a bonus section. Each module contains a number of questions (36 in total) that cover geography, history, fun facts and culture. The content takes the form of videos (slideshows with voice-over) and also includes texts, photos and diagrams.

To find out more and get the course, click here to uncover The Secrets of the Eiffel Tower .

Fun facts about the Eiffel Tower – Breaking records

What is the actual height of the eiffel tower.

On completion, the tower was 300 metres high. During the 20th century, successive sets of antennas were added to the top of the structure for radio and TV transmission purposes.

By 1994, the tower had reached 317 metres.

In 2000, the tower was 324 metres tall.

Then on 17 January 2005, a new set of antenna increased its height to 325 metres .

For how long was the Eiffel Tower the tallest monument in the world?

• The Eiffel Tower became the world’s highest monument in 1889 with its 300 metres topping the Washington Monument (169 m).
• It kept this record for 42 years until the completion of the 319 metre-high Chrysler Building , in New York City in 1930.
• In 2009, the Khalifa Dubai tower was completed at a height of 810 metres which is equivalent to 2 1/2 Eiffel Towers!
• An interesting note: the Eiffel Tower is now 6 metres higher than its former ‘rival’, the Chrysler Building, thanks to its new antennas!

Is the Eiffel Tower the tallest structure in France?

No, the Eiffel Tower lost its status as the tallest structure in France in 2004 to the Viaduct of Millau (in the Rouergue region). The central pylon of the bridge reaches a height of 343 m.

However, the Eiffel Tower remains the highest monument in Paris . It will certainly stay as such for decades to come, despite the construction of new high-rise towers in La Défense (Paris’ CBD).

How many visitors climb the Eiffel Tower each year?

• As of 1 January 2018 it is estimated that more than 302,848,000  visitors have climbed the tower since its inauguration in 1889.
• Twice the Eiffel Tower has welcomed more than 7 million people in a year: 7,086,273 in 2011 and 7,097,302 in 2014 .
• In 2017 , the number of visitors reached 6,207,303.

Is the Eiffel Tower the most visited monument of Paris and of France?

Not quite! Until the big fire of 15. April 2019  Notre-Dame cathedral topped the list with 14 million visitors per year. Then, other monuments – for which an entry fee applies – are welcoming more visitors such as:

• Disneyland Paris (15 million)
• Louvre Museum (9.6 million),
• Palace of Versailles (8 million)

(stats for 2018/2019)

However, unlike many Parisian monuments and landmarks, the Eiffel Tower can be seen and appreciated from afar, from a great number of places around Paris.

How many visitors can the Eiffel Tower hold at the same time?

The answer is  no more than 5,000 .

• The first platform, at 57 metres, can carry a total of 3,000 people at the same time.
• The second platform, at 115 metres high, can support 1,600 and
• The summit of the tower can welcome no more than 400 people (on two different levels linked by a staircase).

Has the Eiffel Tower been centre stage for any world record attempts?

Well, this may not be a “fun” fact but one I couldn’t miss talking about…

Since its inauguration, there have been many crazy attempts made by adventurers with the Eiffel Tower as centre-stage.

The Flying Tailor of the Eiffel Tower

It’s Sunday, 4 February 1912.  Franz Reichelt  was an Austrian-born tailor born in 1878 in Wegstädtl (today Štětí, Czechia). In 1898 he moved permanently to Paris and obtained French citizenship in 1909.

Reichelt founded a prosperous dressmaking business in the opera district. We are talking about a time when the world was at the dawn of the aviation age. From July 1910, the tailor had been working on creating a “parachute suit” after hearing stories of fatal accidents among the early aviators. A few days before the attempt on the Eiffel Tower, he finally received permission from the authorities to try out his new suit.

But this Sunday 4 Feb 1912 was a very cold day. Temperatures were below 0 °C (32 °F). A stiff breeze blew across the Champ de Mars. Some 30 journalists and a crowd of thousands of curious onlookers gathered around the Eiffel Tower.

This is the moment of truth!

A little after 8 am Reichelt climbed the stairs to the first platform of the tower. At 8.22am, the Flying Tailor prepared to make his jump. He got onto a stool placed on a restaurant table by the guardrail. And stood 57 metres (187 ft) above the ground, facing the Seine.

He adjusted his apparatus with the assistance of his friends. And checked the wind direction by throwing a piece of paper. He then placed one foot on the guardrail. Hesitated for about 40 seconds.

Then finally he jumped…

But his parachute failed to deploy and… he crashed onto the ground at the foot of the tower.

His parachute seemed to have been only half-open. Video footage of the event shows that it folded around him almost immediately. It took him a few seconds before striking the frozen soil at the foot of the Eiffel tower. The impact of his fall left a hole measuring 15 centimetres (5.9 in).

A short film was taken during this attempt which shows the man’s fall and was released shortly after the event.

Interestingly, on 2 February 1912 – two days prior to Reichelt’s tragic attempt – Frederick R. Law, had successfully parachuted from the viewing platform of the torch of the Statue of Liberty, 46 m (151 feet) from the base of the statue. The Statue of Liberty in New York City was a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi… and its metal framework was built by… Gustave Eiffel himself!

Philippe Petit, the French high-wire artist

Another risk-taker was Philippe Petit , the renowned French high-wire artist. In 1989, Petit walked a wire strung from the ground at the Place du Trocadéro to the second platform of the Eiffel Tower. He made it in 30 minutes. What better way to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Eiffel Tower? In 1972, Petit had previously walked a wire rigged between the two north pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, in Australia.

Is the Eiffel Tower strong enough to face strong winds?

The Eiffel tower swayed 13 cm during a storm in 1999, which blew at 240 kph.

As for the variation of ambient temperature, the top of the tower may shift away from the sun by as much as 18 cm which was recorded during the 1976 heatwave. (Gustave Eiffel had allowed for a variation as much as 70 cm).

Get your Tickets for the Eiffel Tower: Guided Visit + Access to the Top!

Fun facts about the Eiffel Tower – An Historic Monument

Who built the eiffel tower and why.

The Eiffel Tower takes its name from its architect, Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923). But he was not the only one to work on realising his dream.

Two engineers from his company, Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier , were also credited for their input in the project.

Between 120 and 200 men worked on the site. More than 300 in the workshops at Levallois-Perret (North-West suburb of Paris).

During its completion, only one worker – an Italian – tragically died after falling from the first floor.

The Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 Paris World Fair , marking the centennial celebration of the French Revolution. Its position as an entrance arch to the exhibition pavilions located across the River Seine (Trocadéro and Champ de Mars) was celebrated as a grand monument to the glory of France.

How long did it take to build the Eiffel Tower?

It took only two years, two months and five days to build the tower, which is a remarkably short period of time. The work started in 1887 and the tower was inaugurated in 1889.

Who opposed the building of the Eiffel Tower and considered it an eyesore?

Many outraged French intellectuals, including Charles Gounod , Charles Garnier and Alexandre Dumas vigorously protested against the project. Through the media, they tried to oppose the tower’s construction. Guy de Maupassant chose to eat at the restaurant up the tower. (declaring that this was the only place in Paris he could not see the structure!) The press published outraged critics describing the Eiffel Tower as a “ useless monstrosity ”.

Perhaps today the only rational protest comes from people who nostalgically deplore the new plethora of antennas that mask the original spectacular top of the tower. They regard the additions as ugly and disrespectful of Gustave Eiffel’s work.

Where does the iron of the Eiffel Tower come from?

All the iron which makes up the immense Meccano-like structure comes from the iron factories of Messieurs Dupont et Fould . Since closed down, the factory was based in Pompey (Meurthe-et-Moselle), a suburb of Nancy , Lorraine. The Pompey factory needed to supply Eiffel with 18,038 pieces of puddled iron . They were then connected using 2.500.000 rivets by three hundred workers.

Was the Eiffel Tower ever close to being dismantled?

The City of Paris gave Gustave Eiffel a concession that permitted the tower to stand for 20 years, after which it should have been dismantled. The sudden demand for a suitable platform from the newly emerging radio transmission technology saved the tower from demolition.

Again in 1944, when the Allies were marching closer to Paris, Hitler gave orders to General Dietrich von Choltitz (the German military governor of Paris) to destroy Paris and the Eiffel Tower… orders which he dared not follow.

Which famous people climbed the Eiffel Tower while staying in Paris?

The list is rather long… we can however include some names such as Pope John-Paul II, all French presidents, Chinese leader Hu Jintao, singers Edith Piaf, Charles Aznavour and Maurice Chevalier.

Amongst those who did not climb the Eiffel Tower was Jules Verne , who said when being decorated with the Légion d’Honneur:

“They are decorating me because I am the only man in France to have not climbed the Eiffel Tower”.

Needless to say, the writer’s name is remembered in the gastronomic restaurant at the second level.

Then, in June 1940, Hitler posed in a famous picture at the Trocadéro in front of the Eiffel Tower but declined to climb it. His first ever leisure tour of Paris was so quick that he had allowed only a half-day to see most of its monuments! It was said that Hitler conquered France, but did not conquer the Eiffel Tower.

More recently, on 13 July 2017, French President Macron invited US President Donald Trump to dine at the Jules Verne restaurant on the second platform of the Eiffel Tower.

Fun facts about the Eiffel Tower – Inside the tower

How far can we see from the top floor of the eiffel tower.

Contrary to urban legend, it is not possible to see the Alps from a far distance in fair weather! But the view is still stunning. It stretches for 70 km, as far as the outskirts of Paris, Charles de Gaulle airport and the countryside beyond the suburbs.

If your aim is to admire Paris itself, it is better to come down to the second platform. From where everything will look closer and you will be able to see the city’s most famous monuments in detail.

How much does the Eiffel Tower weigh?

Did you know that the Eiffel Tower went on a diet! At its inauguration, the tower weighed 11,000 tonnes, compared to 10,100 tonnes today – less than the weight of a cylinder of air with the same volume as the iron structure.

Who owns the Eiffel Tower today?

The SNTE (Société Nouvelle d’exploitation de la Tour Eiffel), a semi-public company whose main shareholder is the City of Paris.

Are there any reproductions of the Eiffel Tower across the world?

Yes, and there are so many of them: Las Vegas, Nevada (165 m), Walt Disney World’s EPCOT theme park on Lake Buena Vista, Florida, Tianducheng, Hangzhou, China (108 m), Kings Island Amusement Park, Mason, Ohio (101 m), etc.

Other towers were inspired by the Eiffel Tower such as Blackpool Tower in England (158 m), Tokyo Tower in Japan (333 m) and the metal Tower of Fourvière in Lyon (86 m).

In Australia, we have a perfect example of a tower directly inspired by the Eiffel Tower: the AWA Tower in Sydney. Located at Wynyard, in Sydney’s CBD, the metal structure sits on top of a building, making the structure 100 metres high. It was the city’s highest building until the 1960s.

Fun facts about the Eiffel Tower – Practical Questions

Can we climb the stairs to the top of the eiffel tower.

Early visitors used to be allowed to climb the 1,665 steps from the bottom to the top of the tower. Now, only the first two platforms can be reached by stairs. If you wish to access the top floor, you will need to use the lift.

Can pictures be taken of the Eiffel Tower and published?

According to the official website of the Eiffel Tower, “ there are no restrictions on publishing a picture of the Tower by day. Photos taken at night, when the special lights are illuminated, are subjected to copyright, and fees for the right to publish must be paid to the SNTE “.

So, beware if you are using night-time photos of the Eiffel Tower!

Are there any restaurants in the Eiffel Tower?

YES, definitely! And a very good one too! Le Jules Verne , on the second platform, is a must. And guess what: a special lift is reserved for its customers. Re-opened in 2018 under the leadership of Triple Michelin-starred chef Frédéric Anton, the 95 seats restaurant offers an unforgettable view on the roofs of Paris, both day and night.

On the first floor, the restaurant 58 Tour Eiffel serves simpler food, and covers two levels, offering views of Paris and the metal structure of the tower.

When exactly is the Eiffel Tower lit up at night?

Thanks to a magical display of lights at night-time, the Eiffel Tower glitters for 5 minutes  from nightfall until 1.00 am, every hour on the hour . One of the best spots to enjoy the show is from the top terrace of the Montparnasse Tower , aligned perfectly with the Eiffel Tower, with the skyline of La Défense in the background.

The light display is made up of 20,000 bulbs, linked by 40 km of cable.

When was the best fireworks display?

For many Parisians and visitors, the consensus is unanimous. The best fireworks that ever took place around the Eiffel Tower happened on the 1st January 2000 at midnight. The most incredible pyrotechnic display lasted 6 minutes. The tower looked like a rocket ready to take off. It was considered by the Parisians as good as Sydney’s New Year’s Eve fireworks. “ Shorter but more beautiful ” was the City of Paris’ motto.

The only remaining feature of this ‘ temps glorieux ’ is the beam of light that sweeps the whole city of Paris (and its suburbs) in a 360 degree-radius. The light also takes us back to 1889. A similar light was used to illuminate the Paris sky with blue, white and red colours.

However every year on Bastille Day , a free concert is organised at the foot of the Tower followed by amazing fireworks.

How much does it cost to climb to the top floor of the Eiffel Tower?

On the 1st September 2020, reaching the top of the Eiffel Tower using the lifts cost you:

• €25.90 per adult,
• €13.00 per young person between 12 and 24, and
• €6.50 per child under 12.
• For children under 4, entrance is free!

All the entrance fees and opening hours can be viewed on the official website of the Eiffel Tower , which features interesting information and facts about the monument.

Take the Eiffel Tower Quiz!

Go beyond the fun facts of the Eiffel Tower by testing your knowledge of the Eiffel Tower in 12 questions!

Click here to take the Eiffel Tower Quiz!

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About the author

Pierre is a French/Australian who is passionate about France and its culture. He grew up in France and Germany and has also lived in Australia and England. He has a background teaching French, Economics and Current Affairs, and holds a Master of Translating and Interpreting English-French with the degree of Master of International Relations, and a degree of Economics and Management. Pierre is the author of Discovery Courses and books about France.

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Just love getting your regular posts on the different areas of France. They are fascinating reading and very informative. Hope to get to France again and track down some of the places you have talked about. Especially love the historical and geographical information about Paris. Keep up the good work!!

Thank you Julie, always a pleasure! 🙂

This really helps me with my assignment and I learned a lot of new things myself. I enjoyed reading through this and I appreciate your time you put into this! 😁

Thank you Amy, you’re welcome! 🙂

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24 PLACES TO SEE IN FRANCE

Lawless French à fond

La tour Eiffel

Symbole de paris, voire de la france.

It's impossible to imagine the Parisian skyline without the Eiffel Tower - or to believe that it was once considered an eyesore.

My first visit to Paris was in 1989. Nowadays, there are elaborate light shows and fireworks for any number of events, including the annual Octobre rose illumination in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. But I loved my first IRL view of the tower dressed up to celebrate its centennial, with 100 ans spelled out in simple lights .

Today’s issue of Lawless French à fond takes an in-depth look at the Eiffel Tower - its original purpose, lots of facts and figures, and how to visit, whether actually or virtually.

Table of Contents

Announcement

La construction de la tour Eiffel 🏗️ Video about Gustave Eiffel's vision and how he made it happen.

La tour Eiffel Go back in time to discover the origins of this perfect symbol of Paris.

Tour Eiffel Behind the scenes with an Eiffel Tower employee.

À quoi sert la tour Eiffel ❓ Animated answer to this question from a kid, from the always delightful 1 jour, 1 question .

Comment la science a sauvé la tour Eiffel How Gustave Eiffel saved his tower from its planned destruction.

Le monument

Histoire, chiffres clés, illuminations, peintures : découvrez tous les secrets du monument le plus iconique du monde. (Site officiel de la tour Eiffel)

La Dame de fer : le surnom de la tour Eiffel

This article from the official site is particularly interesting - it discusses a variety of names that were temporarily attached to the Eiffel Tower before its official name and most common nickname were established.

On the first floor of the Eiffel Tower

Practice your French translation skills with this A2-level writing exercise.

Do you know about the Eiffel Tower? (10 questions, ProProfs Quizzes)

Eiffel Tower (10 questions, QuipoQuiz)

Eiffel Tower (18 questions, Quiz Trivia Games)

Eiffel Tower Quiz (12 questions, Mon Grand-Est )

How well do you know the Eiffel Tower? (podcast + 10 questions, The Earful Tower)

Travel French ✈️

From buying plane tickets to making hotel reservations, find all the vocab and phrases you need to get to and around Paris.

8 Symbols of France

Learn about the flag, national anthem, and other icons of la République française .

Lesson Plans

If you're a teacher, take a look at these Eiffel-themed exercises from LessonPlanet (10-day free trial) .

International Festival: France 🎆

Cross-curriculum social studies lesson for K-2nd grade, featuring the book Madeline , French word association, landmark identification, and charades.

Where in the World Is Mrs. Waffenschmidt? 🔎

6th-8th graders use deductive reasoning to figure out where she is and also to name a famous author from that country.

La tour Eiffel - A History ✍️

Worksheet to spark a discussion or an essay for 9th - 11th graders.

Convinced that you need to (re)visit the Eiffel Tower? Check out these options to plan the perfect visit.

Visite virtuelle

If a real-life visit isn't in the cards, enjoy this 360° virtual visit.

💗 Announcement

Thanks for reading Lawless French à fond - see you in two 3️ weeks!

While I truly love creating these deep dives for you and have dozens of ideas for future topics , each issue Lawless French à fond takes a great deal of time to put together. So I've decided to cut back from every other week to every three weeks.

Want to support my work? Buy me a coffee :

📧 Partagez !

If you enjoyed this issue, please

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Monuments Historiques #4: La Tour Eiffel

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Amy grew up in a small rural town in Washington and left home to study French and English literature at Southern Oregon University. This led her to La Ferté-sous-Jouarre to teach high school students English through the TAPIF program. From there, she travelled back to the states and received her Masters of Library and Information Science and Children’s Literature at Simmons University. In her spare time, she practices latte art and watches Danny Phantom.

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Eiffel Tower: Interesting facts

• Post author By admin
• Post date October 26, 2023
• No Comments on Eiffel Tower: Interesting facts

Bonjour, mes chers lecteurs,

You probably never wonder what the statue of liberty and the Eiffel Tower have in common. After enumerating some interesting facts about this “monstre sacré” aka la Tour Eiffelv(sacre monster, it is a meliorative metaphore) we will explore what facts it shares with another sacred monster. How can we not talk about the Eiffel Tower? C’est un sujet incontournable (It’s an anvoidable topic). Allons-y ! (Let’s go!).

La Tour Eiffel

1. gustave eiffel:.

The tower is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, who designed and oversaw its construction. It was completed in 1889 as the entrance arch for the 1889 World’s Fair held in Paris.

2. Temporary Structure:

The Eiffel Tower was originally intended to be a temporary structure, standing for just 20 years. It was nearly torn down but was saved due to its use as a radio transmission tower.

At 324 meters (1,063 feet), the Eiffel Tower was the tallest man-made structure in the world until the completion of the Empire State Building in 1931.

4. Iron Structure:

The tower is made of iron, with approximately 18,000 individual iron parts and over 2.5 million rivets used in its construction.

The Eiffel Tower weighs around 10,100 tons, and the iron framework expands and contracts with temperature changes, causing it to vary in height by up to 15 centimeters (6 inches).

6. Visitors:

It’s estimated that over 250 million people have visited the Eiffel Tower since its completion.

7. Painting:

The tower is repainted every seven years using 60 tons of paint to protect it from rust. It’s painted in three different shades to give the illusion of a uniform color from top to bottom.

8. Elevators and Stairs:

Visitors can take elevators to the top or use the stairs to climb to various levels. There are 1,665 steps to the third level.

9. Light Show:

The Eiffel Tower is adorned with thousands of sparkling lights every evening for a few minutes, creating a stunning light show known as the “Eiffel Tower Sparkles.”

10. Symbol of France:

The Eiffel Tower is an enduring symbol of France and is recognized worldwide as a symbol of Paris.

11. Replicas:

There are numerous replicas of the Eiffel Tower around the world, including in cities like Las Vegas, Tokyo, and Prague.

12. Radio Transmission:

It served as a military radio transmission tower during both World Wars, which played a crucial role in communication.

Common Facts: Statue of Liberty / Eiffel Tower

1. french connection:.

Both structures have a strong connection to France. The Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France to the United States, was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi. The Eiffel Tower, as the name suggests, was designed and built by French engineer Gustave Eiffel.

2. Collaborative Effort:

Both projects involved significant collaboration between France and the United States. Bartholdi designed the Statue of Liberty in France, and its iron framework was constructed by Gustave Eiffel’s company. The statue was then disassembled and shipped to the U.S., where it was reassembled on Liberty Island in New York Harbor.

3. Symbolism:

Both structures are powerful symbols. The Statue of Liberty symbolizes freedom and democracy and is often associated with welcoming immigrants to the United States. The Eiffel Tower is an enduring symbol of France and the city of Paris.

4. Iron Construction:

Both the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower feature iron construction. The statue’s framework is made of iron designed by Gustave Eiffel, and the Eiffel Tower is entirely constructed from iron.

5. Tourist Attractions:

They are both major tourist attractions. The Statue of Liberty is a symbol of New York and the United States, while the Eiffel Tower is one of the most famous landmarks in Paris.

6. Historical Significance:

Both structures have historical significance. The Statue of Liberty was dedicated in 1886 and commemorates the centennial of the American Declaration of Independence. The Eiffel Tower was completed in 1889 for the 1889 World’s Fair held in Paris.

En conclusion:

These acts demonstrate the historical significance, engineering marvel, and enduring cultural importance of both the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty. While these landmarks have common elements and share historical connections, they represent different ideals and are located in different countries, each with its unique cultural and historical significance.

A la prochaine,

• Tags interesting facts:eiffel tower , la tour eiffel , the eiffel tower

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Eiffel Tower facts and history

The Eiffel Tower is the world's most recognizable monument. 324 meter tall, it is by far the tallest monument in Paris, France, a city almost free from skyscrapers. It is also the world's most visited paid monument. From 1889 until 1930, it was the world's tallest monument. Its visit, by lift or walking up the stairs, is a thrilling experience. Top Paris monuments .

Eiffel Tower key facts

The Eiffel Tower - Tour Eiffel in french - is the tallest building in Paris. It is a puddle iron lattice monument.

The Eiffel Tower is 324 meters tall. Upon its completion, it surpassed the Washington Monument (169 meters) as the tallest monument in the world. The Chrysler Building in New York City (319 meters) took the record in 1930. The first floor of the Eiffel Tower is 57 meters and 360 steps from the ground. The second floor is 115 meters and 1060 steps from the ground.

With 6.3 million visitors in 2023, the Eiffel Tower is the world's most visited paid monument.

Eiffel Tower dimensions and floors

A daring engineer dream, the Eiffel Tower weights 7300 tons. But, the pressure it applies on the ground is only equivalent to the pressure of a chair with a man seated on it.

Now 324 meter tall with her television antennas (312 meters excluding the antenna), it towers above Paris, a city almost free of skyscrapers.

Spectacular air lifts bring you up to the first floor (58 meters above ground), second floor (115 meters), third floor (276 meters) with their 360° views.

Eiffel Tower apartment and hotel map

Eiffel tower visit.

The Eiffel Tower is open every day at least from 9.30am to 11.45pm. Stairs are open at least from 9.30am to 6.30pm. The Eiffel Tower tickets up to second floor cost 17.10 euros. Buy tickets online .

The Eiffel Tower has two restaurants. Madame Brasserie on the first floor is a new brasserie. The fancy Jules Verne restaurant on the second floor, is good value for money on weekdays. If you are fit, walk up to the second floor. This walk is definitely one of the greatest things you can experience in Paris. Don't miss the Eiffel Tower at night , specially on July 14th.

Locate Eiffel Tower on Paris map . Paris metro : Metro station Champ de Mars Tour Eiffel on RER C and Bir Hakeim on line 6.

Eiffel Tower history facts

Completed in 1889 for Paris world exhibition to celebrate the progress of technology, the Eiffel Tower was designed and built in just two years by 132 workers and 50 engineers. The Tower was much criticized by Parisians when it was built.

The Eiffel Tower was planned to be demolished in 1909. It was saved at the last moment to be turned into a telecommunication tower. With 5 to 7 millon visitors yearly, this iconic Paris monument now fully pays for itself.

Paris history

Eiffel Tower detailed construction history

It was not Gustave Eiffel who came up with the idea for this tower which now symbolizes Paris, but two engineers from his team, Émile Nouguier and Maurice Koechlin. Responding to a call for projects launched on the occasion of the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1889, they proposed a 300 m high tower, based on the same principle as the piles of bridges that the company had built in Douro, Portugal, and Garabit, France. Their project was selected among 107 projects, The construction employed 150 workers, and required 18,000 parts and 2,500,000 rivets. The tower was completed in two years, two months and five days,The project was not unanimous: an open letter to the construction manager was published in the newspaper Le Temps. It was signed by the most famous intellectuals of the time and artists such as Charles Gounod, Alexandre Dumas fils or Guy de Maupassant. Despite the controversy, the tower has enjoyed unabated success. It received 2 million visitors during the Universal Exhibition of 1889. It inspired Apollinaire or Aragon, was painted by Seurat, the Douanier Rousseau or Chagall. It appeared very quickly in the cinema. In advertising, it was associated with fashion, luxury, perfumes because it is in itself the symbol of Paris.

The tower consists of a pyramid with curved faces. 50 engineers and designers took part in its design and executed 5,300 drawings. Gustave Eiffel published some of these drawings. The 18,000 different parts were manufactured in the Eiffel factory in Levallois-Perret, close to the city. Only the assembly was provided on site by 132 workers.

The feet rest on solid foundations, to which they are attached and anchored by strong bolts. To build the foundations, 48,000 m3 of earth must have been moved entirely with a shovel. The excavated material was evacuated by horse-drawn wagons and by steam locomobiles. 14,000 m3 of masonry must have been used. The construction of the pillars on the Champ-de-Mars side was easy. On the Seine side, on the other hand, the pillars required compressed air foundations using sheet metal boxes driven 5 m underwater. The deepest foundations of the tower do not exceed 15 m.

From the feet of the tower rise four arches with an opening of 80 m and a height of 80 m, covered with decorations and ornaments representing currencies and the heroes of duty. To assemble the first floor, the uprights must have been placed in a cantilevered inclined position so that they meet the horizontal beams of the first floor. Engineers used hydraulic jacks that ensured the movement of each foot and set up an original scaffolding device topped with sand boxes that emptied to adjust the inclination of the uprights. On the first floor (56 m), a large glazed gallery surrounds the building, forming an esplanade of 4,200 m2, allowing the installation of cafes and restaurants. The floor of the first floor is composed of large hollow tiles or hollow slabs 0.60 to 0.70 in length by 0.20 to 0.25 m in width. These slabs are enclosed between iron rails and sealed in plaster.

On Sunday April 29, 1888, it was a party on the first floor floor. Gustave Eiffel gathered his collaborators, engineers, foremen and workers there, after having made them climb 345 steps to thank them, and announce to the staff that the 2% deduction made on the salary for insurance costs against accidents and care given to patients was now abolished. This removal constituted a large salary increase and was welcomed. The weather was beautiful ; some guests were invited by Mr. Eiffel to a lunch. From this platform, the view of Paris was already exceptional.

At a height of 115 m, there is a second room of around 1000 m2; at the top, a dome with an exterior balcony, from which the view extends almost to infinity. The second floor was raised with the help of cranes which used the elevator path. Organized like a mechanic, this exceptional site did not have the slightest accident. The monument was inaugurated on March 31, 1889. On that day, Gustave Eiffel climbed the 1710 steps of the tower to plant the tricolor at its summit. In his ascent, he was followed by members of the Council of Paris, including Mr. Chautemps, president of the Municipal Council of Paris. The Eiffel Tower remained the tallest building in the world until 1930, when it was supplanted by the Chrysler building (319 m) in New York.

Eiffel Tower fun facts

In 1886, architect Jules Bourdais proposed to build a 355 meter tower for the 1889 Paris international exhibition. The massive masonry core was surrounded by galleries and small cast iron columns. A gigantic electric lamp illuminated the whole city. But Jules Bourdais had underestimated the weight of the monument, its instability and the costs. Gustave Eiffel won the competition, the Eiffel Tower was built and became the iconic monument of Paris. Jules Bourdais was forgotten. Imagine Paris with the Bourdais Tower.

In 1905 a local newspaper organised a stair climbing championship at the tower. A M.Forestier won, taking 3'12''to reach the second level.

A few aviators have flown an aircraft through the arches of the tower. In 1926, Leon Collet was killed during an attempt.

The innovative car manufacturer Citroen used the tower as a giant billboard between 1925 and 1934 – the company name was emblazoned on the tower using a quarter of a million light bulbs. This was recorded as the world’s biggest advertisement by the Guinness Book of Records.

Paris Olympics Eiffel Tower competition venue

In 2024, the Champ-de-Mars, the park located at the foot of the Eiffel Tower in the centre of Paris, will become a temporary outdoor arena. Its configuration and location will enable spectators, television audiences and athletes to enjoy an exceptional setting between the Eiffel Tower and the Ecole Militaire.

For Parisians, the Champ de Mars is a place to meet up and celebrate, regularly attracting thousands of people to share in events together, from the traditional 14 July firework displays to a Football World Cup Final. On a daily basis, people meet up there to enjoy some sport, take in the views or simply walk around the vast alleyways and lawns of this magnificent site, which is now one of Paris’ most iconic public gardens. To stage the beach volleyball and blind football events, a temporary outdoor arena will be built in 2024, enabling everyone to enjoy this venue’s magical setting.

Between the Ecole Militaire’s impressive facade to the south and the equally impressive Eiffel Tower on the River Seine side, the Champ de Mars will once again be a community space for meeting up during the Paris 2024 Games. It will be a key venue for the Paris 2024 Games, because, alongside the Eiffel Tower Stadium’s overlay arena, it will host other events in the Grand Palais Overlay, a temporary structure set up on Place Joffre to the south of the site since 2021.

Capacity: 12,860 spectators. Beach Volleyball (women’s / men’s). Paralympic Games. Blind Football (men’s)

Paris Olympics 2024

Eiffel Tower facts : resources

Eiffel Tower shopping and restaurants Coach tours Restaurants with Eiffel Tower view Eiffel Tower at night Eiffel Tower walking tour Official information web site Facts: opening hours Eiffel Tower on Paris map .

Eiffel Tower and artists

The Eiffel Tower was a shock to artists when it was built in Paris in 1889. Ever since, this amazing monument kept inspiring many famous writers and painters.

Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918), a famous French poet, wrote the quite modern Zone poem in 1913.

Marc Chagall (1887-1985), the famous Russian painter settled in Paris in 1910. The iconic Paris monument inspired many masterpieces:

Pont de Passy et Tour Eiffel (1911) Paris à travers la fenêtre (1913) La Tour Eiffel (1934) Les mariés de la Tour Eiffel (1938)

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12 Interesting Facts and Secrets About the Eiffel Tower

Explore the history, science, and secrets of Paris' most famous landmark.

The Eiffel Tower — or, la Tour Eiffel — has long been one of the world's most recognizable landmarks, symbolizing the romance and ingenuity of the City of Light . 

Designed as the centerpiece of the 1889 World's Fair, the Tower was meant to commemorate the centennial of the French Revolution and to show off France's modern industrial prowess on a world stage. 

And that it did. The tower's construction, finished after two years, two months, and five days, was considered a marvel of precision and speed. Gustave Eiffel's civil engineering firm used 7,300 tons of iron and 2.5 million rivets , and the result stood triumphant over the Champs de Mars, receiving more than two million visitors during the fair. 

The Tower’s now-famous silhouette has been  emulated around the world  in places like Las Vegas, Prague, Tianducheng, China, and, of course, Paris, Texas. The design wasn’t without its detractors , however — a "Protest against the Tower of Monsieur Eiffel,” signed by the likes of Guy de Maupassant, Alexandre Dumas fils , and other well-known artists, was published in the newspaper Le Temps before the project’s completion. The letter argued that the tower would be “a gigantic black factory chimney, its barbarous mass overwhelming and humiliating all our monuments and belittling our works of architecture, which will just disappear before this stupefying folly.”

In defiance of such protests, the Eiffel Tower did see the light of day and has stood the test of time. It remains one of the most visited monuments in the world, welcoming almost seven million visitors a year and more than 300 million people since its debut. It has changed over the years, with the addition of lighting, fresh coats of paint, and numerous installations that have come and gone. 

And there’s still more to this landmark than meets the eye. Despite the incredible number of people who have visited since it opened, La Dame de Fer still has a few secrets to share.  

There’s a penthouse apartment at the top.

Gustave Eiffel reserved the uppermost level of the tower for himself, where he hosted famous guests like Thomas Edison in a private apartment that he designed. The space has since been transformed into a recreation of Eiffel's office, complete with wax figures of himself, his daughter, and Edison, and it's open for the public to tour.

Gustave Eiffel didn’t design the tower.

While the tower is named for Eiffel, it was actually Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier — two engineers who worked for his company — who designed the structure. They also commissioned French architect Stephen Sauvestre to work on the appearance of the project in order to quell public concerns about the harsh, utilitarian nature of the original design. They ultimately beat out more than 100 other projects in a contest to choose the main attraction of the World's Fair.  

The Eiffel Tower was supposed to be torn down after 20 years.

The tower was built with the intent of showing off France's industrial prowess during the World's Fair, but the plan was to tear it down after 20 years. However, Eiffel cleverly put a radio antenna and wireless telegraph transmitter in the tower. After proving radio’s usefulness to the government in 1910, Eiffel was granted a 70-year extension to his lease. By 1980, of course, the tower had become an indelible symbol of both Paris and France, and it was in no danger of demolition.

The Eiffel Tower was almost destroyed during World War II.

In August 1944, as the Nazis were losing control of occupied Paris, Adolf Hitler commanded his generals to level the city. Plans were drawn up to mine the Eiffel Tower with explosives. Thankfully, Allied troops swooped in before the order could be carried out. Subsequent air raids over Paris caused significant damage, but the Eiffel Tower survived the war intact.

The Eiffel Tower is a cousin of sorts to the Statue of Liberty.

As sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi was designing “Liberty Enlightening the World”, he called upon his mentor, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, to design the statue’s internal framework. After Viollet-le-Duc died in 1879, Bartholdi turned to Eiffel and Koechlin. They proved their iron expertise with Lady Liberty before moving on to the Iron Lady.

The Eiffel Tower has been home to both a post office and a theater. 

The tower has been home to several businesses throughout the years, many of which are now gone. These include the newspaper “Le Figaro”, which had an office on the second floor for six months during the 1889 World's Fair, a post office tucked into the first floor, and a wooden theater on the first floor designed by Sauvestre. 

Gim42/Getty Images

The Eiffel Tower doubled as a scientific laboratory.

Eiffel, an avid scientist, housed a meteorology lab on the tower's third floor. He was known to perform studies in physics and aerodynamics there, even building a wind tunnel at the foot of the structure. Eiffel opened the doors of the laboratory for other scientists to use for their experiments as well.

The Eiffel Tower moves.

The massive iron structure is wind resistant and will sway during a storm. Wind isn't the only thing that can make the enormous tower move, though — the heat of the sun causes the iron to expand , making the Tower grow a few centimeters during the summer months. The tower will also lean an average of six inches away from the sun, as the one side facing the direct light heats up faster than the other three sides.

The Eiffel Tower is covered in the names of scientists.

The names of French scientists and engineers working in the 19th century were not forgotten by history — not only are they attached to several Parisian streets, but 72 of them are also engraved on the Eiffel Tower. The tributes were painted over in the early 20th century, but thanks to a restoration effort in the late 1980s, they are once again visible. Eagle-eyed visitors can see names like Foucault, Dumas, and Perrier cut into the iron surrounding the tower's first floor.

It takes a lot of work to keep the Eiffel Tower looking good.

Every seven years, workers apply around 60 tons of paint to the tower. This not only keeps La Dame de Fer looking good, but it also helps keep the iron from rusting.

The Eiffel Tower’s sparkling lights are copyrighted art. 

The Tower’s first light show coincided with the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in 1925. Automaker Andre Citröen financed a 200,000-bulb show that featured a shower of stars, alternating Zodiac symbols, comets, and (naturally) his car brand’s name at the finale. Another show, featuring 336 yellow-orange spotlights, came sixty years later , but the now-famous sparkling light show, consisting of 20,000 bulbs, first lit up the night sky New Year’s Eve 1999 to ring in the new millennium. While the Tower itself is in the public domain , its illumination is protected by copyright under French law . However, don’t call your lawyer just yet — this only applies to pictures taken for professional use. You’re free to share any personal pictures of the Eiffel Tower and its lights as you please.  

There’s a Champagne bar at the top.

If you're brave enough to climb the stairs to the top of the tower, reward yourself with a glass of Champagne from the Champagne Bar . There's nothing like a glass of bubbly with a spectacular view.

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9 anecdotes revealing all you need to know about the Eiffel Tower

Inspiration

Paris Cultural Heritage Cities

Reading time: 0 min Published on 20 December 2023, updated on 15 April 2024

When it was built for the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris, the Eiffel Tower was the tallest tower in the world! Alas, it can no longer lay claim to that title, but it remains the most visited monument in the world that isn’t free to enter. That would be because the Eiffel Tower, now come to symbolise Paris, has more than one trick up her sleeve! We’ll show you some of them in 9 anecdotes.

1000 feet... and a nose ahead of Philadelphia!

Before Paris , Philadelphia had plans to build a 1000 foot tall tower (around 300m). But it was France that kept the flame alive! Two of Gustave Eiffel’s engineers researched a similar project, and the French Government, firm believers, launched a competition to erect an “iron tower with a square base”, some “300m high”.

A “skeleton” given form

The foundations had barely been laid, when opponents of the Tower began spouting forth morbid comparisons: “A belfry skeleton”, said poet Paul Verlaine, “a truly tragic streetlight”, said the writer Léon Bloy! When the Eiffel Tower proved such a success at the Universal Expo, drawing in almost two million visitors, the critics piped down...

A record-breaking tower

The highest tower in the world at the time was also built in record time : two years, two months, and five days! What’s it made of? 7300 tonnes of iron, 60 tonnes of paint, 2.5 million rivets, and a lot more besides!

Ancestor of the postcard

The first illustrated postcard in France came from the Eiffel Tower, and of course it bore her image! The “Libonis”, from the name of its author, was printed in the post office on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower. The initial print run of 300,000 copies would usher in the fashion for postcards and derivative products.

Saved by the radio!

Not intended to last, the Eiffel Tower was supposed to be destroyed after 20 years! But Gustave Eiffel managed to save it by pointing out how it could serve science. With weather stations and an aerodynamics test lab, the Tower also owes its survival to TSA, radio’s predecessor. As early 1913 you could send a telegram to America from the Tower.

Lift to the top

While the first visitors had to climb the 1710 steps to the top, it wasn’t long before lifts were installed. They were unique prototypes, and two of them are still in service today! Indeed, during the renovation work completed in 2014, it was decided to keep the hydraulic lifts.

A new wardrobe

Without her sturdy coat of paint, the Eiffel Tower couldn’t survive in her puddled iron dress. Since it was built, it has been repainted (by hand!) 19 times, which is something like every 7 years! The colour used since 1968? Eiffel Tower brown!

The Tower's little sister in Vegas

From Russia to China, and on to Romania, the Eiffel Tower has been imitated the world over. The first imitation came in 1894 with the Blackpool Tower in the United Kingdom, but the most famous replica (165m tall) is found in Las Vegas.

Lighthouses in the night

Every night, two beams of light with a range of 80km shine over Paris like lighthouses in the night. They are a nod to the original red, white, and blue lamp that was the brightest in the world!

• Visit the Eiffel Tower • Plan your trip to Paris

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Eiffel Tower: Essential Facts, Interesting Features & Visiting Tips

• February 23, 2016

From Hollywood movies to my own logo, the Eiffel Tower crops up every time you think about France. After 127 years of watching over Paris, the Iron lady is still as majestic and fascinating as ever.

In this episode, we’ll quickly go over Eiffel tower’s facts and history, including few visitors tips!

C’est pas sorcier sur la Tour Eiffel Le site officiel de la Tour Eiffel

Have you ever visited la tour Eiffel ? What good memories do you keep ? Which other French monument would you recommend ?

Share your experience (in French if you dare!) in the comments below. We can all learn from your story. The comment section is the best place to start discussions and ask questions!

Join the conversation!

I visited Paris and Notre Dame Cathedral for the first time exactly 2 years ago this week! It just happened that there was a French chef pastry/bread competition taking place right in front of the cathedral! It was so exciting to visit & I was able to purchase a little sample to taste. Then I ventured into the cathedral. What a day!

I’ve visited both the Tower in Paris, and a former restaurant that was part of the tower, dismantled, and moved to New Orleans, Louisiana.

I was at la tour Eiffel on my first trip to Paris in 2012. And I loved it !

Ohh !!Geraldine thank you so much for all Your vídeos. I will finally visit Paris , a dream of mine for a long time to celebrate my 50′ and wedding anniversary . I been triying to refresh my two year French class , from my high school. Your videos have been an inspiration and fun to watch during my breaks at work . My first lenguage is Spanish , so you are putting my brain to work harder in this Anglo / Latin translations . I know all your advice and comments will be very useful in my dream trip to France . Thank you for covering the Eiffel Tower briefly , I’m a bit obsessed with it have collected so many around the house. We are arriving via Orly at nite so I’m hoping I will see it lit first. Counting the days until April 10th . Please continue your postings about every day situations and proper etiquette ( the market one was a perfect example ) Shoping in boutiques , stores etc .. Love from VEGAS Mariel

Hola Mariel,

Voy a pensar en tí el 10 de Abril. 😉 ¡Que tengas buen viaje!

The first time I went to Paris was in 1967. I was a teenager and went with a good friend via the school’s further education department. This was great as we were at liberty to just wander off on our own. Well, of course, our visit had to include the Eiffel Tower, and I remember being amazed at the sheer size of this structure once you were standing at its base. We made it to the second stage using the stairs all the way, but didn’t bother taking the lift to the top .. too many other famous places to rush off and see ! And those other places ? I think we walked the entire length of the Champs-Elysées and then watched a military parade at the Arc de Triomphe. Very impressive. Also there was the Louvre, where managed to get “thrown out” for pulling out a packet of cigarettes while standing in front of the Mona Lisa. What an idiot, but at least the cigs. were Gauloises 🙂 We did a lot of legwork that day, but we charged around quite a lot on the Metro as well … I was fascinated by the trains’ “rubber” wheels ! And by the evening we’d made it up to Montmartre and the Sacré-Coeur … very bohemian and the artists’ quarter, all of which I thought was absolutely wonderful. And during the whole day, glimpses of the famous Eiffel Tower from here, there and everywhere. At the end of it all we had to get back to the Gare St. Lazare for the train back to the ferry .. no Euro tunnel then ! To cap it all, for me anyway, was the Frenchman at the station who helped us to find our bags and who told us the story of what had happened to him during the war !! All brilliant stuff when you’re a fifteen year old whose head is filled with adventures. It’s a long time since I’ve been up the Eiffel Tower … perhaps I’m due for another visit 🙂

I’m not suprised at all to read you were kicked out for a packet of Gauloises, John! 😀

I remember being at the top of the Eiffel Tower with my husband in the deepening twilight as the lights of the city began twinkling on like stars.

QUICK FACTS

NAME Gustave Eiffel OCCUPATION Engineer BIRTH DATE December 15, 1832 DEATH DATE December 27, 1923 EDUCATION College of Art and Manufacturing PLACE OF BIRTH Dijon, France PLACE

I visited the Eiffel Tower for the first time in May 2014. I took the Métro and got lost, but eventually made my way there. When I came up out of the Métro, it was pouring rain. But it was such a view even in the rain and mist. Everyone was soaked but having such fun and best of all the reflections from the water on the sidewalks made my photo turn out just beautiful.

Voici une vue panoramique de Paris, à 360 degrés : http://www.gillesvidal.com/ … L’appareil photo est au-dessus la Tour Eiffel. Magnifique !

J’avais visité la Tour plusiers fois. Toujours je la trouve tres belle. J’aime bien monter au 2eme ètage par l’escalier J’aime aussi monter la tour de Notre Dame pour admirer Paris avec les gargouilles.

We took a quick trip to see La Tour Eiffel in March 2015. We had only one and a half days in Pairs and it was cold, windy and rainy. It was nearly dark when we arrived, but it was breathtaking! The next trip to Paris will include much more time and a meal there.

Geraldine, Is it possible to print your vocabulary?. I showed one of your videos to 3 ladies all in their 80’s who are not connected to computers or smart phones. We have a weekly French study group where we try to use material written in French to expand our vocabulary and use French to expand our cultural knowledge. I would love to be able to use your lessons. Merci,

Bonjour Valerie, I usually tell students to take notes, as it’s the best way to learn. 🙂 So this is why there’s no vocabulary sheet on the blog. Merci for sharing, this is awesome.

AMO LA TORRE EIFFEL CUANDO. SCINTILA, SORRY POR ESCRIBIR EN ESPANOL. BISOU. GERALDINE.

Le premiere fois que j’ai visité la Tour Eiffel je ne pourrais pas allé jusqu’à la tour parce ce Le Pen etait lá pour faire une discours. Mais la prochaine fois je suis allé , j’ai acheté les billets sur internet et j’aime la vue beaucoup. Mais mon mari a besoin de les toilettes et il y avait une ligne pour descendre et il etait très inconfortable pour quelques minutes. En fin, tout était bien.

J’adore La Tour Eiffel! I never go to Paris without visiting it! The first time time I saw it I was riding in a taxi after being picked up at the train station. We were driving madly down the street and there it was…I was so excited! I have had both lunch and dinner at the second floor restaurant, Jules Verne. It is a once-in-a-lifetime treat. One leg of the tower has a special elevator that takes you to the restaurant and after your meal, there is a special door that allows you to go outside and walk around this level and then re-enter before going down the special elevator. Eight of us had a special Christmastime dinner there and it was actually snowing that night. Our dinner took over 4 hours and we got to see the tower sparkle four times that night!! We were all given a sample menunfor the night and it is a memory that warms my heart. The first year the Eiffel Tower had an ice skating rink, 3 of us went ice skating there. The rink is set up on the first level and is about the size of a big tennis court. We were there early in the morning and there was only one other couple there…two Japanese tourists. We had the whole place to ourselves and it was amazing…like our own private rink…à la Toir Eiffel. It is something I will never forget! When I taught first grade in California, I posted on a travel site, and people from all over America who visited Paris, would send us an ETower postcard…my class got so excited when we got one and we posted it on a special board for all to see. As a result, I now have both a postcard collection and have shared it with my French club. For Bastille Day, (what Americans call your 14th day of July)..I made 45 “gallettes

On our 1st trip to Paris we stayed near Les Invalides and of course went to the top of the Tour Eiffel. The view was breath-taking – not to be missed. On our 2nd trip we stayed near Jardin de les Plantes and it wasn’t till our last day that I realized how much I’d missed seeing the Tour Eiffel as part of our daily landscape. Friends of ours sent their nephew a postcard from Paris and told him they had climbed the Eiffel Tower. When they got home and showed him pictures of them climbing the stairs he was disappointed — he had pictured them climbing the outside ironwork, like King Kong.

Salut Géraldine

Merci bien pour ta vidéo cette semaine. Un fois j’ai visité les champs de mars avec mon mari, mais on n’est pas monté la tour Eiffel. Cependant, scintillant dans le ciel de nuit, elle est formidable vraiment. Je n’aime pas dire “la dame de fer” parce qu’il était aussi, en anglais, un nom de Margaret Thatcher !

Mon préfère vue de Paris est à la Sacré-Coeur. Peut-être je vais visiter la tour montparnasse ce Pâques – elle n’est pas belle, franchement, mais elle est très grande ! Et c’est prâtique, car on va voyager par train au gare du montparnasse.

La tour Eiffel a un rôle significant dans le film anglais “The Lavender Hill Mob”, une comèdie classique que je peux recommander. C’est très drôle.

Mais bien sûr, visitez la Tour Eiffel! Il faut aussi visiter le Jardin Des Plantes, le Musée de Cluny, le musée médicale de l’Université Descartes, Shakespeare & Company, Galléries Lafayette, Musée D’Orsay, Musée Carnavalet – et ce sont simplement pour commencer! On peut passer une vie entière à Paris…oh, et n’oubliez pas Le Louvre, Montmartre, le Champs Élysée et………… ?

Thank you for a fun video. A small item of note perhaps….in English the word Eiffel is pronounced EYE-full. And it is an eyeful truly.

oh! Didn’t know that! Thanks Sue.

J’ai visité Paris plusieurs fois, avec mon mari et nos deux filles. Une de mes visites préférées était à Noël. Le marché de Noël était sur la place du Trocadéro. Nous avions tellement de choses à voir. Les lumières du marché et La Dame de Fer la nuit étaient incroyables.

I have visited the Eiffel Tower several times, but only went up once — only to discover how disappointing I found Paris to be from above! All the buildings look the same, same style, same color. Paris life is definitely at the street level!

L’Arc de Triomphe est très beau, la vue en haut est magnifique. Les sculptures de l’arc sont très jolies. Il est une belle vue de Le Champs Elysée aussi.

Salut Geraldine. ça va? Je n’ai pas visité la tour Eiffel. Je voudrais faire ça quelque jour, mais ne sait pas si sera possible. J’ai aimé bien le video sur la tour Eiffel, très interessant et il ya beacoup de information technique que je ne connaissais pas. Merci beaucoup pour partager avec nous cet formidable video. À plus! Raul.

J’ai visité la Tour Eiffel pendant ma première visite à Paris, en 1986!. Ce qui m’a étonné était sa taille à la base – beaucoup plus grande qu’on penserait. Et les ascenseurs dans les jambes de la tour. Le Sacré Coeur et l’Arc de Triomphe donnent tous les deux des bonnes vues, mais allez aussi à un parc élevé comme celui des Buttes Chaumont. C’est un de mes lieux favouris à Paris.

Il y a queque annes, je suis alle a Paris avec une amie. Ce souveniers sont tres precieux a moi. J’ai un drole experience a le tour de eiffel et je ne oubliras jamais cette fois. Aussi, a voir les architecture magnifique via un petit bateau sur le Seine avec tous les lumieres du la ville est un souvenier de la vie….Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur , la Louvre, seront toujours mes meillers souveniers.

Salut Géraldine, Je recommande un excellent livre en anglais au sujet de l’histoire de la Tour Eiffel. Il s’appelle Eiffel’s Tower écrit par Jill Jonnes. Savez-vous que Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley et Thomas Edison étaient parmi les Américains célèbres qui faisaient partie de l’Exposition? Aussi je recommande monter jusqu’au sommet de l’Arc de Triomphe. La vue est formidable! Merci pour les vidéos!

J’ai eu la chance de visiter la tour eiffel pour la première fois en 2002! Pour dire vrai, ca a toujours été mon réve de voir la tour eiffel et le basilique de sacré coeur de près, non pas seulement sur les pages d’un livre! Cette année-là j’ai pu vister les deux monuments de mon réve et je dois avouer que cela restera le meilleur souvenir de ma vie. La vue sur Paris est exceptionnelle. Un jour, peut être j’aurai l’occasion de diner au troisième étage mais on me dit que c’est hors de prix et il faut reserver un an à l’avance!! Est-ce vrai?

Bonjour Josias, Ca ne m’étonnerait pas que ce soir effectivement très cher. 🙂

Enfin je viens visiter en Avril. C’est un cadeau de mariage au mon pere. Vivant dans le ch’nord, pour presque cinq ans, Chez les Ch’tis, j’ai a jamais vue Paris, autre d’au le TGV, en passant en route à Roissy, ou ma belle soeur d’etre, en le Morbihan. Les pauvres Parisiens – Bien sur il trouvé mon terrible Francais, avec beaucoup de le dialect Ch’ti, et accent Ulster/Ecosse, un grand shoc! A bientot biloute.

Bon voyage, biloute !

Chère Geraldine, J’étais là avec ma soeur et mes parents ~1953. C’était très impressive, mais j”avais pensé la tour Eiffel être une copie de Blackpool Tower où avant la guerre nous avons eu les vacances. J’avais tort. Blackpool Tower est la copie, mais le première Tour avec un sol de verre! J’adore vos videos. Merci beaucoup. A bientôt. Shirley. XX. ( Kisses because I am English!).

We visited Sacre Coeur first and I struggled to find the tower – it was a long way away and hidden by the trees – later on we took a boat trip on the Seine from La Louvre to the tower and, close up, we were a little disappointed – perhaps being so close the tower was foreshortened and because it tapers towards the top it looks smaller.

The view from Sacre Coeur was good – Paris is a much “flatter” city than London with its cluster of skyscrapers though I must say that Sacre Coeur was most impressive.

My partner, teenage son Ben and I went on the way home from a holiday on the canal du Midi. Ben is frightened of heights and until the last moment said he was not going up. Finally he plucked up the courage. At the end of the day he said it had been the best day of his life! A good day all round.

I agreed to go up the Tower with my husband on my 40th birthday despite not liking heights very much. We arrived at the first floor restaurant and when I saw how high we were I had a hugh panic attack, burst into tears and had to go down in the lift with my husbands coat over my head so that I couldn’t see! How embarrassing!

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wi … = nous aimons aussi ce viaduc de M. Eiffel. Ici au sud, c’est plus près et un bon moment quand on voyage vers le nord sur l’autoroute 75. C’est un peu comme les pieds de la tour Eiffel?

Je le visite quelqu fois. C’est impressionnant! A beaucoup de Parisien les indigne, disent qu’il une tas de fer en position vertical, «dame de fer»! … Moi Aussie, je préfère un tour a Trocadéro. Il a un grand phare lumineux qu éclaire tout el ciel de Paris et de ses environs . Je le peux voir de l’aéroport d’Orly. Mon meilleur souvenir est quand Mandela est mort il été allumée avec les couleurs du drapeau de l’Afrique . 😀

The Eiffel Tower is one of those places best seen at a distance rather than up close. It is disappointingly dull brown in the flesh, but I love the glimpses of it peeking out from between buildings at certain places on the RER or Métro, or from the plaza in front of the Australian Embassy for example. Place Trocadero is of course the best place to view it, and the sparkly lights are fun. If you are at Place Trocadero I highly recommend the Musée d’Architecture. They have excellent temporary exhibitions, a good cafe and a good bookshop.

J’ai visité plusieurs fois la Tour Effel, mais mes meilleurs souvenirs sont la célébration de la millénaire en 2000. Il y avait des milliers de gens mais les feux d’artifice étaient incroyables!! et je crois que c’est la première fois qu’elle étincelait!

J’ai visité la Tour Euffel plusieurs fois, mais ma meilleur mémoire c’est la célébration millénaire! Il y avait des milliers de personnes, mais les feux d’artifices étaient incroyables!!! Une de mes meilleures mémoires c’est que j’ai passé le millénaire à Paris!!!

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Eiffel Tower in Paris: 22 Fun facts and history

• Post category: Facts and history / Paris & Île-de-France
• Post author: Nassie Angadi

She goes by many names. La Tour Eiffel or la Dame de Fer (“The Iron Lady”) in French, and of course the Eiffel Tower to the rest of the world. I call her “she” as opposed to “it” because that is how she is referred to in French.

Instantly recognizable, the Eiffel Tower has become the symbol of not only Paris, but also all of France . But did you know though, that as a towering symbol, Parisians detested this “ugly modern pile of junk”?

These days we can’t imagine a world without the Eiffel Tower, a French landmark with no equal. As a local in Paris , I tend to instinctively look for her after coming out of the underground metro , to gauge where I am and which direction I’m heading towards.

What a difference a few decades makes. Today, tourists the world over flock to the Eiffel Tower to take in the views from all around and its observation decks. With expansive views stretching from the Arc de Triomphe to Bastille , millions of visitors put it on their bucket list every year, making it one of the top tourist attractions in France .

So let’s plunge into the beginning shall we, with a few facts about the Eiffel Tower in Paris, shall we? Allons-y!

1. It was designed by Gustave Eiffel.

The Eiffel Tower is named after its engineer, Gustave Eiffel who was from the French city of Dijon .

Eiffel was not just any guy. He had constructed several buildings, bridges and viaducts around France before the Eiffel Tower.

He was also just coming off of another large French project building the metal framework with sculptor Frédéric Auguste Barthold for the Statue of Liberty which opened in 1886.

A smaller version of the Statue of Liberty can be found a few 100 yards away from the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Pont de Grenelle bridge .

2. It took 2 years to construct.

Construction of the Eiffel Tower started on 26th January 1887, and was completed in 2 years, 2 months and 5 days, a massive technological feat.

Each of the 18,000 pieces used to construct the Tower were specifically designed and calculated, traced out to an accuracy of a tenth of a millimetre and then attached together using 2,500,000 rivets.

Along with Eiffel, the names of 72 engineers, scientists, and mathematicians who contributed to its construction are engraved on the side of the tower.

3. It was built for the World’s Fair in 1889.

In an era when world fairs were a real spectacle , the Eiffel Tower was built as a centerpiece for the 1889 World Fair in Paris .

Nearly 2 million people visited Paris during that World Fair, by all accounts a complete success. At the time, the Eiffel Tower was the tallest tower in the world and people were keen to admire this architectural masterpiece.

Amongst the famous visitors in 1889 were several royals including:

• British Crown Prince Albert-Victor
• King Alexander III of Russia
• Archduke Charles Ferdinand of Austria
• King Oscar II of Sweden
• King Leopold II of Belgium

These days, it is estimated 7 million people visit the tower annually.

4. It was supposed to be a temporary structure.

The Tour Eiffel was supposed to be temporary as it was supposed to be dismantled within 20 years.

About 80% of the funding for the tower had come from Gustave Eiffel himself, and so the 20-year lease of the property was to allow him to recuperate his investment by selling tickets, exhibitions, etc.

He didn’t need that long however, just 6 months after it opened when he broke even on his investment. 

5. Parisians hated it.

Today the Eiffel Tower may be a symbol of this romantic City of Lights we know as Paris, but when construction was going on, the project was detested.

On Valentine’s Day in 1887, a group of famous Parisian artists and intellectuals signed the following letter that ran in the Le Temps newspaper:

“We come, writers , painters , sculptors, architects, passionate lovers of the hitherto intact beauty of Paris, to protest with all our strength, with all our indignation, in the name of little-known French taste, in the name of art and French history threatened, against the erection, in the heart of our capital, of the useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower, which public malignancy, often imbued with common sense and the spirit of justice, has already baptized with the name of “Babel Tower”. It suffices, moreover, to realize what we are advancing, to imagine for a moment a vertiginously ridiculous tower, dominating Paris, as well as a gigantic and black factory chimney, crushing Notre-Dame with its barbarous mass. The Sainte-Chapelle , the Saint-Jacques tower, the Louvre , the dome of the Invalides , the Arc de Triomphe, all our humiliated monuments, all our shrunken architecture, which will disappear in this astonishing dream.  And for twenty years we will see the entire city stretch out, still quivering with the genius of so many centuries, we will see the odious shadow of the odious bolted sheet metal column stretch like a stain of ink. La protestation des Artistes – Le Temps du 14 février 1887

A French author named Guy de Maupassant hated it so much, he decided to make a statement: he ate lunch on the second floor there everyday. As he said, it was the only place in all of Paris from where he didn’t have to look at it blighting the landscape.

Now, I should note that this sort of protest is not really unusual for French people. Other Parisian landmarks like the Louvre pyramid , Centre Pompidou , and Tour Montparnasse were all detested as they were constructed. (As a Parisian, I can confirm Tour Montparnasse remains a blight on this city.)

☞ READ MORE: Fun Facts about French Culture

6. It was used for science and radio antennas.

Gustave Eiffel might have suspected that his tower was not going to get a warm reception, so he had a plan to prove its usefulness. One of the most interesting facts about the Eiffel tower is that the Iron Lady was not to be just some pretty young thing, it was to become a tool for studying science.

Meteorological, astronomical, physics and telegraph experiments were conducted in the tower. With a passion for aerodynamics, all sorts of scientific apparatus was installed (barometers, anemometers, lightning conductors etc.)

Notably he even Thomas Edison there, who offered him his famous “spectacle” class M type Phonograph.

He also erected a radio antenna on top of the tower. The value of the tower in sending and receiving wireless messages became particularly important to the French military, which is why the tower continued to stand after its 20 year initial lease expired in 1910.

7. It used to be the tallest structure in Paris and the world.

In a city which doesn’t have many skyscrapers, the Eiffel Tower is a prominent 324-meter-tall structure. It was actually slightly shorter when it was built, with the difference being more modern antennas added to the top.

For 41 years, the Eiffel Tower was the tallest structure in the world, until the Chrysler Building in New York was completed in 1930, topping out at 1046 feet.

In 1957, an antenna was added to increase the Eiffel Tower’s height by 67 feet, making it slight taller. However, by that time, the Empire State Building in New York had become the tallest in the world at 1454 feet.

Antennas keep being added to the Eiffel tower, including a new one in 2022, but the days of being the “tallest” have long passed.

8. It has a lot of steps to get to the top.

It was the tallest structure in France until the construction of a military transmitter in the town of Saissac in 1973. With several staircases, there are 1665 steps from bottom to the top floor. 

9. It has 5 elevators.

If 1665 steps seems like too much walking for you, there are 5 elevators from the ground esplanade to second floor along with several sets of stairs, and another two elevators from second floor to the top of the tower.

The Eiffel Tower was supposed to be purely “Made in France” until the engineers discovered that the only elevators using hydraulic technology to go up and down the sloping sides, were from the U.S.A. In order to solve this paperwork problem, they simply made the Otis Brothers honorary French citizens. 

10. There is an apartment at the top.

Location, location, location. If you are looking for an apartment with a view on the west side of the city, this is it. Gustave Eiffel built himself an apartment at the top of the Tower, though it is not really one he lived in for any period of time.

Built as a place to welcome visitors and dignitaries, the apartment is around 100 sq meters (1076 sq feet). Although that sounds somewhat large, at least when compared to the size of expensive Parisian apartments , it does not have a bedroom, and a large portion of it is occupied by an elevator cabin and other technical installations.

The apartment is at times available for tours, with wax sculptures of Gustave Eiffel, his daughter Claire, and Thomas Edison. There is a living room with a table, a couch, a piano and three small desks, a kitchen, a bathroom with a sink, and a separate toilet cubicle.

It was primarily designed to comfortably accommodate notable guests and for Gustave Eiffel to work on scientific experiments. But there is a wrap-around balcony!

11. It was used as a transmitter during WWI.

Being a radio antenna tower, the Tour Eiffel was used as a transmitter during WWI between 1914-1918, to jam German radio communications and to hinder their advance.

While much of France was under German occupation, Paris remained a refuge for soldiers from the French and the Allied powers army units. The Eiffel tower thus remained safe. You can read more facts about Paris here.

12. It was almost destroyed in WWII.

It’s existence was under greater thread during WWII when Paris was fully occupied by German forces in 1940. Hitler visited Paris that same year, and wanted to hang a German Reich flag from the top. Unluckily for him, the tower’s lift cables were mysteriously cut right before he could do so.

Towards the end of the war, in 1944, as the Allies approached Paris, Hitler ordered the German General in charge of Paris to demolish the Eiffel tower and other parts of the city as part of their retreat. The General refused and the Eiffel Tower and Paris could finally breathe a huge sigh of relief after 4 long years under threat.

13. It has a 3 restaurants.

If you are feeling a bit peckish when you get to the top of the Eiffel Tower, never fear because there are 3 restaurants within the tower. (You might fear for your wallet however.)

For a snack, there is the Buffets one the 1st and 2nd floor which has snack food for the whole family. They also offer takeaway.

Then there is the Jules Verne (named after the famous French author ) on the 2nd floor, which serves classics of gastronomical French cuisine. It is a Michelin-starred restaurant, so expect to be dressed appropriately.

And finally, right at the top, is a Bar à Champagne, which along with various types of champagne , also offers non-alcoholic drinks for those who are looking for a view without a tipple.

14. It has an ice skating rink in winter.

In winter time, there is a small ice skating rink installed on the 1st floor of Eiffel Tower, giving expansive views of the city.

You do have to pay to access the 1st floor, but once you get up there, access to rink, as well as ice skate rental, is free.

15. It expands and contracts.

The Eiffel tower looks pretty stable, but it has a secret. It expands around 15cm (6inches) in the summer heat and contracts in the winter.

Not to worry though, Gustave Eiffel’s engineering has stood the test of time, and these adjustments were taken into account in its construction.

16. Nighttime photos of the Eiffel Tower are illegal.

If you happen to be near the Eiffel Tower as the sun goes down, you will notice that lights go on every evening on the Eiffel Tower. There is usually a small light show once upon the hour, until past midnight.

However, you cannot a actually publish photos of the Eiffel tower lit up at night because it is illegal. The lighting is considered a copyrighted art installation, and thus belongs to the artist.

17. Replicas of the Eiffel Tower are all over the world.

You have definitely seen the Eiffel Tower replica in Las Vegas, but have you seen the one in Shenzhen, China?

There are over 50 different replicas and derivatives of the Eiffel Tower, including a pretty good facsimile in the town of Paris, Texas in the U.S.A.

18. It is repainted every 7 years.

If you are wondering why the Iron Lady still looks so spritely after 100+ years, it is because it is regularly repainted. When it opened in 1889, the Eiffel Tower was a reddish-brown color. A few years later it was repainted in a yellow-brown color. In 1968, the powers-that-be finally selected a specially mixed “Eiffel Tower Brown” which is the color it is today.

Every seven years, a grand chantier takes place, using about 60 tonnes of paint to bring the Eiffel Tower back to its full glory.

19. Aviators have tried to fly under the arch.

Many an aviator has tried flying under the arches of the tower, not always successfully. In 1926, Leon Collet died after a failed attempt. In 1944, an American fighter pilot is believed to have passed under the Tower in his to chase down a German fighter plane. 

The most recent attempt was in 1991, when a stunt-plane pilot on a Sunday at dawn.

20. A conman sold the Eiffel Tower.

In 1925, a conman named Victor Lustig chanced upon a newspaper article discussing the problems faced with maintaining the Eiffel Tower, which gave him inspiration for a new con. At the time, the monument had begun to fall into disrepair, and the city was finding it expensive to maintain.

He posed as a government official and succeeded in “selling” the Eiffel Tower for scrap metal. When his first buyer, André Poisson, discovered he was duped, he was so ashamed that he didn’t notify the authorities. So Lustig “sold” it, again. This time however, the French authorities were alerted and Lustig fled to the U.S. to escape prosecution.

21. Charles de Gaulle wanted to move it.

In keeping with its world fair origins, French President Charles de Gaulle tried to arrange for the tower to be dismantled and relocated to Montreal for the World Expo 1967.  (This was part of his push to have French-speaking Quebec separate from the rest of Canada. Thankfully, neither event happened!)

22. There is a famous poem about it.

A wonderful poem many French children learn in primary school is Maurice Carême’s La Tour Eiffel . Carême is Belgian not a French poet , but it remains a lovely poem about Paris nonetheless.

If you enjoyed reading that article, you might enjoy reading more facts about Paris and France here. A bientôt!

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Origins and Construction of the Eiffel Tower

It was for the 1889 Exposition Universelle , the date that marked the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution, that a great competition was launched in 1886.

The first digging work started on the 26th January 1887 . On the 31st March 1889, the Tower had been finished in record time – 2 years, 2 months and 5 days – and was established as a veritable technical feat .

• Une première version bien différente
• La construction
• Durée de construction record
• Le journaliste Émile Goudeau visitant le chantier au début de 1889 en décrit ainsi le spectacle.
• Les planches de Monsieur Eiffel
• Extrait de la "Protestation contre la Tour de M. Eiffel", 1887

Key figures

The construction schedule, the design of the eiffel tower.

The plan to build a tower 300 metres high was conceived as part of preparations for the World's Fair of 1889 .

The wager was to " study the possibility of erecting an iron tower on the Champ-de-Mars with a square base, 125 metres across and 300 metres tall ". Selected from among 107 projects, it was that of Gustave Eiffel, an entrepreneur, Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier, both engineers, and Stephen Sauvestre, an architect, that was accepted.

Emile Nouguier and Maurice Koechlin , the two chief engineers in Eiffel's company, had the idea for a very tall tower in June 1884. It was to be designed like a large pylon with four columns of lattice work girders, separated at the base and coming together at the top , and joined to each other by more metal girders at regular intervals.

The tower project was a bold extension of this principle up to a height of 300 metres - equivalent to the symbolic figure of 1000 feet . On September 18 1884 Eiffel registered a patent "for a new configuration allowing the construction of metal supports and pylons capable of exceeding a height of 300 metres".

In order to make the project more acceptable to public opinion, Nouguier and Koechlin commissioned the architect Stephen Sauvestre to work on the project's appearance.

A quite different first edition

Sauvestre proposed stonework pedestals to dress the legs, monumental arches to link the columns and the first level, large glass-walled halls on each level, a bulb-shaped design for the top and various other ornamental features to decorate the whole of the structure. In the end the project was simplified, but certain elements such as the large arches at the base were retained, which in part give it its very characteristic appearance.

The curvature of the uprights is mathematically determined to offer the most efficient wind resistance possible. As Eiffel himself explains: "All the cutting force of the wind passes into the interior of the leading edge uprights. Lines drawn tangential to each upright with the point of each tangent at the same height, will always intersect at a second point, which is exactly the point through which passes the flow resultant from the action of the wind on that part of the tower support situated above the two points in question. Before coming together at the high pinnacle, the uprights appear to burst out of the ground, and in a way to be shaped by the action of the wind".

The construction

The assembly of the supports began on July 1, 1887 and was completed twenty-two months later.

All the elements were prepared in Eiffel’s factory located at Levallois-Perret on the outskirts of Paris. Each of the 18,000 pieces used to construct the Tower were specifically designed and calculated, traced out to an accuracy of a tenth of a millimetre and then put together forming new pieces around five metres each. A team of constructors, who had worked on the great metal viaduct projects, were responsible for the 150 to 300 workers on site assembling this gigantic erector set.

The rivet workers

All the metal pieces of the tower are held together by rivets, a well-refined method of construction at the time the Tower was constructed. First the pieces were assembled in the factory using bolts , later to be replaced one by one with thermally assembled rivets, which contracted during cooling thus ensuring a very tight fit. A team of four men was needed for each rivet assembled: one to heat it up, another to hold it in place, a third to shape the head and a fourth to beat it with a sledgehammer. Only a third of the 2,500,000 rivets used in the construction of the Tower were inserted directly on site.

The uprights rest on concrete foundations installed a few metres below ground-level on top of a layer of compacted gravel. Each corner edge rests on its own supporting block, applying to it a pressure of 3 to 4 kilograms per square centimetre , and each block is joined to the others by walls.

On the Seine side of the construction, the builders used watertight metal caissons and injected compressed air , so that they were able to work below the level of the water.

The tower was assembled using wooden scaffolding and small steam cranes mounted onto the tower itself.

The assembly of the first level was achieved by the use of twelve temporary wooden scaffolds, 30 metres high, and four larger scaffolds of 40 metres each.

"Sand boxes" and hydraulic jacks - replaced after use by permanent wedges - allowed the metal girders to be positioned to an accuracy of one millimetre.

On December 7, 1887 , the joining of the major girders up to the first level was completed. The pieces were hauled up by steam cranes, which themselves climbed up the Tower as they went along using the runners to be used for the Tower's lifts.

months to build the foundations

It only took five months to build the foundations and twenty-one to finish assembling the metal pieces of the Tower.

Considering the rudimentary means available at that period, this could be considered record speed. The assembly of the Tower was a marvel of precision , as all chroniclers of the period agree. The construction work began in January 1887 and was finished on March 31, 1889 . On the narrow platform at the top, Eiffel received his decoration from the Legion of Honour.

"A thick cloud of tar and coal smoke seized the throat , and we were deafened by the din of metal screaming beneath the hammer. Over there they were still working on the bolts: workmen with their iron bludgeons, perched on a ledge just a few centimetres wide, took turns at striking the bolts (these in fact were the rivets). One could have taken them for blacksmiths contentedly beating out a rhythm on an anvil in some village forge, except that these smiths were not striking up and down vertically, but horizontally, and as with each blow came a shower of sparks , these black figures, appearing larger than life against the background of the open sky, looked as if they were reaping lightning bolts in the clouds. "

Mr. Eiffel’s Blueprints

The following blueprints are copies of Gustave Eiffel’s originals, taken from the book La Tour de 300 mètres, Ed. Lemercier, Paris 1900

Debate and controversy surrounding the Eiffel Tower

Even before the end of its construction, the Tower was already at the heart of much debate. Enveloped in criticism from the biggest names in the world of Art and Literature, the Tower managed to stand its ground and achieve the success it deserved.

Various pamphlets and articles were published throughout the year of 1886, le 14 février 1887, la protestation des Artistes.

The "Protest against the Tower of Monsieur Eiffel", published in the newspaper Le Temps , is addressed to the World's Fair's director of works, Monsieur Alphand. It is signed by several big names from the world of literature and the arts : Charles Gounod, Guy de Maupassant, Alexandre Dumas junior, François Coppée, Leconte de Lisle, Sully Prudhomme, William Bouguereau, Ernest Meissonier, Victorien Sardou, Charles Garnier and others to whom posterity has been less kind.

Other satirists pushed the violent diatribe even further, hurling insults like : "this truly tragic street lamp" (Léon Bloy), "this belfry skeleton" (Paul Verlaine), "this mast of iron gymnasium apparatus, incomplete, confused and deformed" (François Coppée), "this high and skinny pyramid of iron ladders, this giant ungainly skeleton upon a base that looks built to carry a colossal monument of Cyclops, but which just peters out into a ridiculous thin shape like a factory chimney" (Maupassant), "a half-built factory pipe, a carcass waiting to be fleshed out with freestone or brick, a funnel-shaped grill, a hole-riddled suppository" (Joris-Karl Huysmans).

Once the Tower was finished the criticism burnt itself out in the presence of the completed masterpiece, and in the light of the enormous popular success with which it was greeted. It received two million visitors during the World's Fair of 1889.

" We come, we writers, painters, sculptors, architects, lovers of the beauty of Paris which was until now intact, to protest with all our strength and all our indignation, in the name of the underestimated taste of the French, in the name of French art and history under threat, against the erection in the very heart of our capital, of the useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower which popular ill-feeling, so often an arbiter of good sense and justice, has already christened the Tower of Babel. (...)

Is the City of Paris any longer to associate itself with the baroque and mercantile fancies of a builder of machines, thereby making itself irreparably ugly and bringing dishonour ? (...). To comprehend what we are arguing one only needs to imagine for a moment a tower of ridiculous vertiginous height dominating Paris,just like a gigantic black factory chimney, its barbarous mass overwhelming and humiliating all our monuments and belittling our works of architecture, which will just disappear before this stupefying folly.

And for twenty years we shall see spreading across the whole city, a city shimmering with the genius of so many centuries, we shall see spreading like an ink stain, the odious shadow of this odious column of bolted metal.

Gustave Eiffel’s Response

In an interview in the newspaper Le Temps of February 14 1887, Eiffel gave a reply to the artists' protest, neatly summing up his artistic doctrine:

"For my part I believe that the Tower will possess its own beauty . Are we to believe that because one is an engineer, one is not preoccupied by beauty in one's constructions, or that one does not seek to create elegance as well as solidity and durability ? Is it not true that the very conditions which give strength also conform to the hidden rules of harmony ? (...) Now to what phenomenon did I have to give primary concern in designing the Tower ? It was wind resistance.

Well then ! I hold that the curvature of the monument's four outer edges, which is as mathematical calculation dictated it should be (...) will give a great impression of strength and beauty , for it will reveal to the eyes of the observer the boldness of the design as a whole. Likewise the many empty spaces built into the very elements of construction will clearly display the constant concern not to submit any unnecessary surfaces to the violent action of hurricanes, which could threaten the stability of the edifice. Moreover there is an attraction in the colossal, and a singular delight to which ordinary theories of art are scarcely applicable ".

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Eiffel tower facts, height & weight

An object of discord, desire and fascination, the Eiffel Tower never fails to impress. Enriched by a history full of new developments, here you can discover all of its key information.

History of the restaurants

For the Universal Exhibition of 1889, four majestic wooden pavilions designed by Stephen Sauvestre decked the platform on the first floor. Each restaurant could seat 500 people.

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The Eiffel Tower

Paris, Ile-de-France, France

The Eiffel Tower in Paris is a giant iron monument completed in 1889 and one of the world’s most iconic landmarks.

24 Nov 2020

@histluketomes.

About The Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower (Tour Eiffel) is an imposing iron monument on Paris’ Champ de Mars by the river Seine.

The Eiffel Tower history

The Eiffel Tower was built between 1887 and 1889 based on the design of engineer Gustave Eiffel, after whom the tower was named. In fact Eiffel’s design was chosen out of 107 other proposals as part of a competition to create an iron structure as the entrance way to Paris’ Universal Exhibition World Fair or ‘Exposition Universelle’.

The intention was to mark the centennial of the French Revolution. By Gustave Eiffel’s side were engineers Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier as well as architect Stephen Sauvestre.

Work on the 15 metre foundations began on 26 January 1887 and the Eiffel Tower was inaugurated on 31 March 1889 when Eiffel himself climbed the Tower’s 1,710 steps and planted the French flag at its peak.

At that time, the Eiffel Tower’s 312 metres in height made it the tallest building in the world, only eclipsed in 1929 with the construction of New York’s Chrysler Building.

The Eiffel Tower today

Today the Eiffel Tower is 324 metres tall due to the later addition of antennas, making it the tallest building in Paris and the fifth tallest in the world.

The Eiffel Tower is a tourist hotspot and visitors can climb or use the lifts to reach the first or second floors, the latter of which is 115 metres high. The most expansive views can be found on the Eiffel Tower’s third level at 276 metres, which has its own separate lift from the second floor. A backstage tour is available, which details the workings of the Eiffel Tower and its history.

Every year approximately 7 million visitors climb the Tower, not to mention the millions more who enjoy the wonderful park of Champ de Mars which the tower overlooks. The Eiffel Tower’s success is such that many countries all over the world have replicated the Tower more or less identically to the original one.

Getting to The Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower is located on the Champs de Mars at 5 Avenue Anatole France in the 7th arrondissement of Paris.

Metro and RER lines are ideal public transit solutions in Paris to avoid traffic jams and save precious time during your vacation. If you enter the Eiffel Tower’s address in your smartphone, your GPS navigation app may propose one of the following lines: Bir-Hakeim, Line 6 (Metro) Ecole Militaire, Line 8 (Metro) Etienne Marcel, Line 4 (Metro) Champ de Mars – Tour Eiffel, (RER C line)

You may prefer to travel to the Eiffel Tower by bus. Several lines (42, 82, 87, 69) access the monument, with no fewer than five stops close to the Iron Lady.

If you are travelling from Les Invalides , you are only 1.25 miles from the Eiffel Tower, or about 25 minutes of walking. If you are short on time, the shortest path is to turn left on Rue de l’Université and continue walking straight to the Eiffel Tower.

If you are travelling from Arc de Triomphe , from the Charles de Gaulle Etoile stop, take Metro Line 6 (heading toward “Nation”) and exit at Bir-Hakeim. Allow five minutes on the subway and 10 minutes of walking to get to the Eiffel Tower.

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Eiffel Tower: Information & Facts

Whether you're lucky enough to have visited Paris or have only ever dreamed of going there, chances are you know of the French capital's most beloved landmark: the Eiffel Tower.

The Eiffel Tower, La Tour Eiffel in French, was the main exhibit of the Paris Exposition — or World's Fair — of 1889. It was constructed to commemorate the centennial of the French Revolution and to demonstrate France's industrial prowess to the world. 

"Although at the beginning it was seen as 'the ugliest building in Paris,' soon it became the symbol of the city," said Tea Gudek Snajdar, an Amsterdam-based art historian, museum docent and a blogger at Culture Tourist . 

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.

A hallmark of modern architecture

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."

Uses of the tower

The tower was intended as a temporary structure that was to be removed after 20 years. But as time passed, people no longer wanted to see the tower go. 

"After seeing the success of the tower during and after the World Exhibition, many of the former enemies of the project publicly apologized. By the time the Exhibition was over, most Parisians were proud of the structure," said Iva Polansky, a Calgary-based novelist and historian at Victorian Paris . "Although there remained a few die-hards like the novelist Guy de Maupassant, who continued to loathe the sight of it."

Gustave Eiffel was also not keen on seeing his favorite project dismantled, and so he set about making the tower an indispensable tool for the scientific community.

Just days after its opening, Eiffel installed a meteorology laboratory on the third floor of the tower. He invited scientists to use the lab for their studies on everything from gravity to electricity. Ultimately, however, it was the tower's looming height, not its laboratory, that saved it from extinction. 

In 1910, the city of Paris renewed Eiffel's concession for the tower because of the structure's usefulness as a wireless telegraph transmitter. The French military used the tower to communicate wirelessly with ships in the Atlantic Ocean and intercept enemy messages during World War I . 

The tower is still home to more than 120 antennas, broadcasting both radio and television signals throughout the capital city and beyond.

The tower today

The Eiffel Tower is still the centerpiece of Paris' cityscape. More than 7 million people visit this iconic tower every year, according to the attraction's official website . Since the tower's 1889 opening, 250 million people from around the world have enjoyed all that the Eiffel Tower has to offer.

And it has a lot to offer. The tower's three platforms are home to two restaurants, several buffets, a banquet hall, a champagne bar and many unique gift shops. Educational tours of the tower are available for children and tourist groups.

The tower is open to visitors 365 days a year, with visiting times varying by season. From June to September, the tower remains open until after midnight. Rates vary, but visitors can expect to pay between $13 (10 euros) and $19 (14.5 euros) per person for access to the tower's three public lifts and 704 stairs. Tickets, including group-discounted tickets, can be purchased online or at the ticket office at the foot of the tower.

The Eiffel Tower "provided Paris with the most distinguishable silhouette," said Polansky. Its distinct look has made it an enduring symbol of Paris. 

But according to Gudek Snajdar, more than just its striking shape makes it an icon of the city. "Paris was a center of modern art and painting at the time [late 1800s], home to democracy, and hosting the first world exhibition," she said. "It was meant to be a birthplace of modern architecture, too."

Additional reporting by Jessie Szalay, Live Science contributor.

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Elizabeth is a former Live Science associate editor and current director of audience development at the Chamber of Commerce. She graduated with a bachelor of arts degree from George Washington University. Elizabeth has traveled throughout the Americas, studying political systems and indigenous cultures and teaching English to students of all ages.

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28 Fun Facts About The Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower or La Tour Eiffel in French is one of the world’s most recognizable landmarks. It was designed as the showpiece of the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris in remembrance of the French Revolution’s centennial as well as to show off France’s modern mechanical know-how on a global scale. Mission accomplished!

For a closer look into this architectural marvel that’s on every Paris itinerary here’s 28 fun facts about the Eiffel Tower…

1. The Eiffel Tower welcomes millions each year

The Eiffel Tower has welcomed over 300 million people and still welcomes almost 7 million visitors a year. Quite impressive!

2. It was built to mark the 100 th anniversary of the French Revolution

Paris hosted the 1889 World’s Fair. Artists from around the nation sent in interesting plans for a structure to mark the entrance to the fair on the Champ-de-Mars.

3. Eiffel et Compagnie was the firm that designed and built the Eiffel tower

Gustave Eiffel, a bridge-builder, architect, and metals expert owned this consulting and construction firm. In fact, this wasn’t the first grand project, he also worked in the early 1880s on the Garabit Viaduct, the highest bridge in the world, at the time. Before landing the World’s Fair project, he also helped design the Statue of Liberty.

Eiffel Tower, Paris, France

4. It’s a relative to the Statue of Liberty

Eiffel’s company was invited to plan the interior frame for the Statue of Liberty, a task assigned to his right-hand employee, Maurice Koechlin.

5. The original design was rejected

After viewing his senior engineer’s design Eiffel felt it was too minimalist and he was instructed to include more details and flourishes in his redesign. The final design was approved in 1884.

6. Who were the engineers behind the project

While Eiffel earned the naming rights for the Tower, Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier drew the original design teamed up with French architect, Stephen Sauvestre.

7. Are you up for a climb!

Another cool fact is that it’s possible to climb to the top of the Eiffel Tower.  If you’re feeling very fit, you can climb to the top – beware though – there are 1,665 steps! So most people take the lift.  Little known fact: The Eiffel Tower actually has a total of 5 lifts!  If you plan on using the lift, It costs up to 26,10€ for a ticket to the top. ( Price as of September 2021 ).

8. The building of the Eiffel Tower required tons of metal and manpower

300 steelworkers spent two years, two months, and five days, from 1887 to 1889, constructing the Tower, using more than 18,000 individual metallic parts, 2.5 million rivets, and 40 tons of paint.

9. Eiffel’s tower initial height was 985 feet

In March 1889, upon its completion, the Tower measured 300 meters (985 feet) high. The fact is that this measurement isn’t static, cold weather can shrink the Tower by up to six inches.

10. It was the tallest structure in the world

For 41 years, the Eiffel Tower stood higher than any building or structure in the world until in 1930 it was surpassed by the Chrysler Building in New York with a height of 1046 feet.

11. A large committee protested the tower

Did you know that the author Guy de Maupassant, Alexandre Dumas, Jr., and around 300 other artists and intellectuals, signed a petition opposing the project? They surely did! In fact, they thought the Tower is useless and monstrous.

12. Nevertheless, the Eiffel Tower was an instant hit

The Eiffel Tower was visited by nearly 2 million people during the Fair, spending $1.4 million on tickets, making the 1889 World Fair one of the few to actually turn a profit.

13. The tower was only supposed to stand for 20 years

The Tower was scheduled to be disassembled in 1909 until they’ve realized that its apex was the perfect place for a telegraphy antenna. The wireless telegraph transmitter helped jam German communications during the First World War.

14. The tower moves!

The tower was built to withstand even the strongest winds, and never sway more than 4.5 inches.

15. It has a secret apartment at the top of the tower

On the 3rd floor of the Tower, Gustave Eiffel had a secret apartment built exclusively to entertain from. It was off limits to the public for years but can now be looked at through a window by ticket holders.

16. Hitler wanted the Tower destroyed

When France was occupied by Germany during the Second World War, Hitler ordered that the Eiffel Tower be torn down, but thankfully France refused and the order was never followed through.

17. Want to mail a letter, you can try the Tower’s post office

In fact, in the tiny post office, you can even pick up une carte postale and a stamp and have it mailed from the Eiffel Tower’s post office with its unique postmark.

18. It has a scientific laboratory

Mr. Eiffel built a meteorology laboratory on the Tower’s third floor, where he performed studies in physics, aerodynamics, and built a wind tunnel.

19. Many scientists’ names are engraved on the Eiffel Tower

To be more precise, 72 names of French scientists and engineers working in the 19 th century were engraved on the Eiffel Tower.

20. How does the Eiffel Tower stay looking good?

Every 7 years, around 60 tons of paint is applied to the tower to keep the tower looking good, and also to keep the iron from rusting.  Also, the tower is covered in 20,000 lightbulbs, making it absolutely sparkle at night!

21. Underneath there’s a military bunker

Underneath the Tower’s south pillar there’s a secret military bunker that may connect to the nearby Ecole Militaire via a long tunnel.

Spot the difference (Blackpool Tower, Lancashire, England).

22. It’s not unique

There are 54 replicas of the Eiffel Tower of varying sizes of scale. Blackpool Tower on the English north-west coast is one of the oldest. Other replicas include one in Las Vegas, USA and there are six in Russia !

23. But there is only one genuine Eiffel Tower

In 1991 The Eiffel Tower was declared a UNESCO world heritage site.

24. Pssst! Would you like to buy it?

Incredibly, the Eiffel Tower was sold by a con artist named Victor Lustig for scrap metal.  Not once, but twice!

25. It’s in the movies. A lot.

The Eiffel Tower appears in lots of famous films, including ‘A View to a Kill’ (James Bond), ‘Superman 2’,‘Lucy’, and ‘Hugo’, to name just a few.

26. Raise your glass!

We’ve saved this amazing fact for the end. On the top floor, you can reward yourself with a glass of champagne from the Champagne Bar. A glass of bubbly and a spectacular view with that special someone, just the perfect ending on your Paris journey! The tower is also home to two restaurants – La bulle Parisienne, a French-style bistro, and the world famous Jules Verne restaurant .  Make sure you make a booking if you fancy dining here!

Bonus facts

27. The Eiffel Tower is held together by more than 2.5 million rivets!

28. In 2014 , to mark it’s 125th anniversary, the British Virgin Islands launched a special tower-shaped $10 coin.

FAQs about The Eiffel Tower

How frequently is the eiffel tower painted.

The Eiffel Tower is repainted once every seven years to prevent it from deteriorating.

What’s inside the Eiffel Tower?

The Eiffel Tower is more than just a simple structure - it houses restaurants, shops and museums!

Can you walk under the Eiffel Tower?

Yes, but there are security barriers - you won’t be able to freely stroll underneath.

Do you know any fun facts about the Eiffel Tower?  Share them here in the comments below!

nice article and facts, thank for sharing..

I love all the info it gives you

The former chief engineer of the tower bought a brand new Renault Dauphine car, picked it up and drove to his pace of work in his new car. He parked it in his allocated spot below the tower and walked away. He was a short distance away when he heard a thud behind him, turned and saw a woman laying across his car. She had jumped from the first floor but the car had effectively broken her fall as the owner had left his window(s) slightly open. She lived but his car was written off! Furthermore, his wife had never even seen the car. (I am unable to provide a date but would assume it was in the 50s/60s as it was a new Renault Dauphine.

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10 Fascinating Facts about the Eiffel Tower you should know

On arrival in paris, tourists who have never previously set foot in the french capital dream only of one thing: admiring the place nicknamed “the iron lady”. at over 300 metres high, for more than 40 years after its completion it was the tallest structure ever built. here are some facts few people know about the eiffel tower..

The Eiffel Tower has dominated the Parisian horizon for more than 130 years , with a fame and attraction that seems never to dim — quite the contrary, in fact. Although it is now admired around the world, its beginnings were rather more difficult. To easily get there, hop-off at stop 9 with a hop-on hop-off ticket, then stroll around the Iron lady with Tootwalk . 

What is the eventful history of the Eiffel Tower?

The iconic symbol of France and Paris actually has its roots in… the United States! For the 1876 Centennial International Exhibition in Philadelphia, a team of American engineers imagined constructing a tower that was more than 300 metres tall. Their project was quite different to the Eiffel Tower that we know today. The project ultimately never came to fruition, but it inspired others, including the Eiffel company , which specialised in large metal structures, specifically iron, and gave its name to the tower.

Opposition to the Eiffel Tower

While today Paris wouldn’t be Paris without the Eiffel Tower, responses to the plans for the 300-metre structure were not initially unanimously favourable.

Many people soon questioned the aesthetics and usefulness of the tower. The newspapers doubted the solidity of the building, and bet on its failure with sensational headlines such as "The Eiffel Suicide" as soon as something happened to delay the construction.

Finally, the inhabitants of the Champ de Mars district, frightened by the idea that the tower might fall on them, went so far as to sue the State.

Many cultural icons, such as Emile Zola , Alexandre Dumas , and Charles Gounod , opposed the project. Guy de Maupassant , who despised the edifice, regularly ate lunch in the Eiffel Tower‘s first floor restaurant as it was the only place in Paris where he could eat without seeing the metal structure he hated so much.

The Unknown Fathers of the Eiffel Tower

Two engineers can be considered the ‘fathers’ of the Eiffel Tower: Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier and the architect Stephen Sauvestre . Gustave Eiffel ‘s role in this project was to bring it to the attention of French political leaders, and to obtain their consent to construct the tower for the 1889 world’s fair in Paris . 

This exhibition was important as it coincided with the centenary of the French Revolution, and the Republic wanted to make it an unforgettable event.

When was the Eiffel Tower build?

Initially, Gustave Eiffel had planned twelve months of work; in reality, it would take twice that time. The construction phase, which began on 28 January 1887 , was finally completed on 31 March 1889 , just before the official opening of the Universal Exhibition. 

It took two years, instead of one as initially planned, to raise the square-based iron structure and give the city of Paris this now indispensable landmark. Since its inauguration, the Eiffel Tower has welcomed more than 200 million visitors . 

2.5 million rivets

The lace of the Iron Lady is assembled by 2,500,000 rivets . 

A symbol of alliance, the Tower's rivets bear witness to its historical heritage.

The rivets were set by a team of four "riveters" : one to heat it, one to hold it in place, one to form the head, and one to complete the crushing with a sledgehammer.

What scientific experiments have been carried out on the Eiffel Tower?

From the moment he presented his project in 1886, Gustave Eiffel knew that the scientific utility of the Tower could, at that time, preserve it from its adversaries and prolong its life. Initially, it was to be destroyed after 20 years ! He then specified the Tower's vocation: meteorological and astronomical observations, physics experiments, strategic observation post, optical telegraph communication post, lighthouse for electric lighting and wind studies.

1st wireless telegraph transmitter:

On 5 November 1898, Eugène Ducretet carried out the first wireless telegraphic tests between the Eiffel Tower and the Pantheon (4 km away). The transmitter station was installed at the top of the Tower. In 1899, the waves crossed the English Channel for the first time.

In 1913, the Tower sends, by electric waves, dispatches as far as America and to ships making the crossing, within a radius of 6,000 km.

The TSF during the First World War:

In 1914, during the Battle of the Marne , the Tower radiotelegraph station learned that General Von Marwitz, commanding the right wing of the German army, was experiencing logistical problems and consequently halting his advance.

This vital information enabled the French command to organise a victorious counter-attack.

Thanks to the Tower station, important enemy radiotelegrams, sometimes hidden under commercial guise in the broadcasts of neutral countries, were deciphered. Spies were unmasked, among them Mata Hari.

The first radio broadcasts

From 1921 onwards, a transmitter broadcast, initially on an experimental basis, music programmes, chronicles and finally a "Journal Parlé" as soon as 1925, picked up by amateurs on simple crystal sets. Radio Tour-Eiffel was well known to Parisians at the time.

Experimental broadcasts were organised and artists such as Sacha Guitry and Yvonne Printemps were invited.

Today, the top of the tower serves as a digital TV antenna , broadcasting 45 TV channels and 32 radio stations.

A scientific pantheon: 72 scientists

Gustave Eiffel had seventy-two names of scientists , engineers or industrialists who honoured France from 1789 to 1889 engraved.

These names are displayed in gold letters in relief on the periphery of the first floor.

In the end, little is known about how the scientists were chosen: there is no order, no hierarchy, and no explanation of why a particular name was chosen! 

Where to eat at the Eiffel Tower?

Today you can have lunch or dinner in the monument. There are two restaurants inside the tower. On the first floor is the “ 58 Tour Eiffel ” (58 refers to the number of metres between the restaurant and the ground), and on the second is a gourmet restaurant called “ Le Jules Verne “, which has a star in the famous “Michelin Guide” and is now headed by chef Frédéric Anton , who took over from Alain Ducasse .

Today, the Eiffel Tower remains the undisputed star of landmarks, and it’s not surprising that it is the most-visited monument in the world with an entrance fee.

On our hop-on hop-off line, our Tootbus buses make an essential stop at the Eiffel Tower , so that you can enjoy the majestic Iron Lady.

The Eiffel Tower can also be admired from the Seine, and offers you a completely different perspective! Complete your visit of Paris by bus with a cruise on the Seine at a low price, thanks to our Paris Must See package, or go for a night bus tour with Paris by Night .

For more Tootbus experiences, visit our tours list page .

Facts about eiffel tower in french language?

by Facts-Traits Facts about E 0 comments

• 2.1 What is the Eiffel Tower called in French
• 3 What are 5 interesting facts about France?
• 4.1 Is Eiffel Tower feminine in French
• 5.1 Why is Paris called city of love
• 6 What is France tower called?
• 7 Final Words

In France, the Eiffel Tower is not only a global icon and tourist attraction, but also an important part of French culture. Here are some fascinating facts about this well-loved French landmark, translated into English.

In 1887, construction of the Eiffel Tower began in Paris, France. The tower was built to serve as the entrance arch to the 1889 World’s Fair. The Eiffel Tower is named after its designer and engineer Gustave Eiffel. The tower stands 324 metres (1,063 ft) tall, about the same height as an 80-storey building.

When it was completed in 1889, the Eiffel Tower was the tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years until the completion of the Chrysler Building in New York City in 1930. The tower has three levels for visitors, with restaurants on the first and second levels. The top level is an observation deck.

What are 5 interesting facts about the Eiffel Tower?

1. The Eiffel Tower was the tallest man-made structure until 1930.

2. The Eiffel Tower was supposed to be demolished after 20 years.

3. Believe it not, the Eiffel Tower was once yellow.

4. The Eiffel Tower can only be painted by hand.

5. The Eiffel Tower has a (not so) secret apartment.

6. The Eiffel Tower was originally built as a temporary structure.

7. The Eiffel Tower is made up of 18,038 individual pieces of iron.

8. The Eiffel Tower weighs 10,100 tons.

9. The Eiffel Tower has been featured in over 250 movies and TV shows.

10. The Eiffel Tower receives over 7 million visitors each year.

The French name for the Eiffel Tower is “La Tour Eiffel.” It also has a nickname in the French language: “La Dame de Fer,” which translates to “the Iron Lady.” The original height of the tower was 985 feet.

What is the Eiffel Tower called in French

The Eiffel Tower is one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world. It was designed as the centerpiece of the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris and was meant to commemorate the centennial of the French Revolution and show off France’s modern mechanical prowess on a world stage. The tower is an iconic symbol of Paris and of France, and is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world.

The Eiffel Tower is one of the most popular attractions in Paris and is often seen as a symbol of France. However, its destiny is closely linked to that of the city of Paris, which is the capital of France and the Eiffel Tower’s owner.

What are 5 interesting facts about France?

Did you know that France is the most-visited country in the world? That’s right – over 89 million people visit France each year! And it’s no wonder why – France is a beautiful country with so much to see and do.

France is actually smaller than the US state of Texas, but it has the largest art museum in the world – the Louvre. And the French love their food! They eat 25,000 tons of snails each year, and produce over 1,500 types of cheese.

In France, supermarkets are not allowed to throw away food – they must donate it to charities or food banks. And France has a fascinating history – did you know that they had a king who ruled for only 20 minutes?

If you’re planning a trip to France, or just want to learn more about this amazing country, check out these fun facts!

How do French people say the Eiffel Tower?

Two more french names so make sure to stay tuned And consider subscribing for more Learning of the language.

French is a beautiful language, and there are many ways to learn it. If you are looking for more resources, consider subscribing to a language-learning program or joining a French-language group.

The Eiffel Tower is a 324 meter tall iron puddle tower located in Paris, at the northwestern end of the Champ-de-Mars park on the edge of the Seine in the 7th arrondissement.

Is Eiffel Tower feminine in French

The Eiffel Tower is often referred to as a woman, and it is not surprising given its graceful curves and feminine features. It is said that the Tower was named after its designer, Gustave Eiffel, but it is also possible that it was named after the French word for tower, which is feminine. Either way, the Tower has become a symbol of feminine beauty and strength, and a source of inspiration for many women.

Did the French make the Eiffel Tower?

The Eiffel Tower is one of the most iconic landmarks in the world, and it was built by Gustave Eiffel for the 1889 Exposition Universelle. The exposition was held to celebrate the 100th year anniversary of the French Revolution, and the Eiffel Tower was erected as the entrance arch for the event. The tower is made of iron and stands 324 meters tall, making it the tallest structure in Paris at the time of its completion. The Eiffel Tower is now one of the most-visited tourist attractions in the world, welcoming over 7 million visitors each year.

The Eiffel Tower is not a gift from France to America. It was built for the 1889 World’s Fair held in Paris, France. It was the centerpiece of the exposition and very popular with visitors then and now.

Why is Paris called city of love

If you’re looking to learn a language that is known for being romantic, then French is a great choice! spoken by Parisians in the City of Love, French is a language of passion that is sure to make your heart flutter.

The Eiffel Tower is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world and is known for being a symbol of romanticism. Many couples visit the tower to declare their love for each other and to take in the stunning views of Paris.

What is France tower called?

The Eiffel Tower is a wrought iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower.

Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite is the national motto The Tour de France cycle race has been running for over 100 years The camera phone was invented in France The Louvre in Paris is the most visited art museum in the world France has won the most Nobel prizes for literature.

France is a country with a rich culture and history. From its famous art museums to its iconic landmarks, France has something to offer everyone. Its national motto, “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite,” encapsulates the country’s values of freedom, equality, and brotherhood. The Tour de France, one of the most prestigious cycling races in the world, has been running for over 100 years, and the camera phone was invented in France. The Louvre in Paris is the most visited art museum in the world, and France has won the most Nobel prizes for literature.

Final Words

In 1884, French civil engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel designed and built the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower, which is located in Paris, France, is one of the most recognizable structures in the world. Standing 324 meters tall, the Eiffel Tower is the tallest man-made structure in Paris.

Since its completion in 1889, the Eiffel Tower has become an enduring symbol of both Paris and France. It is one of the most-visited monuments in the world, with over 7 million people visiting each year.

The Eiffel Tower is a symbol of France and its culture. It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world, and it is also one of the most recognizable buildings in the world. The Eiffel Tower was built in 1889, and it is named after its designer, Gustave Eiffel. The tower is 984 feet tall, and it has three levels that are open to the public. The Eiffel Tower is an impressive structure, and it is a great way to learn more about France and its culture.

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I am Many Thau

I have dedicated a career to the pursuit of uncovering and sharing interesting facts and traits about a wide variety of subjects.

A deep passion for research and discovery is what drives me, and I love to share findings with readers who are curious about the world around them.

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