As strong as iron yet as delicate as lace, the Eiffel Tower is the romantic symbol of Paris. Interestingly, its design was at first disdained by the city's artists and writers, who protested the tower's construction in 1889 for the Universal Exposition, a world's fair commemorating the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. Eventually, however, the tower's beauty, originality, and engineering wizardry won it widespread praise and affection -- as well as a place on the canvases of artists such as Pissarro and Utrillo.
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The City of Light finds its loveliest expression in the Eiffel Tower by night -- one of the most romantic views on earth.
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Bridge engineer Gustave Eiffel designed the tower, exulting that "the French flag is the only one with a 300 meter pole." (At 984 feet, the tower ranked as the world's tallest structure for decades; modern television transmitters on top have elevated it to the present 1,063 feet.)
Eiffel's drawings were so precise, giving details for more than 18,000 metal parts, that the tower was erected in just a little more than two years. An astounding 2.5 million rivets hold the parts together, and the tower weighs in at 14.6 million pounds (7,300 tons). Repainting the tower -- a job that requires 50 tons of paint -- is done every seven years.
To reach the top, visitors take elevators that follow curving paths up the legs of the tower. Each year the lifts travel more than 60,000 miles. The cars need special brakes to adapt to the varying angles of descent; a crew of employees crafts replacement parts for the elevators by hand.
The tower has three platforms, and energetic visitors can tackle climbing the stairs to the first two, reached at 187 feet and 377 feet. From the topmost platform at 899 feet, the panorama can stretch for some 50 miles on a clear day. It has been said that the streets and environs of Paris below unfold like a giant map.
Visitors reaching the top can peek into Eiffel's own salon. On their way up or down, they can choose to dine elegantly at the Jules Verne restaurant, which serves a seasonal menu of traditional French cuisine. The food nearly matches the view -- and the prices definitely match the height of the tower.
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A great deal of criticism swirled around the Eiffel Tower during construction. Guy de Maupassant ridiculed it as a "high and skinny pyramid of iron ladders," while novelist Leon Bloy labeled it a "truly tragic street lamp."
Patrons look down at the green lawn known as the Champs de Mars, formerly a parade ground for the 18th-century École Militaire, a military academy housed in a neoclassical building at the end of the lawn. One famous graduate of the class of 1785: Napoléon.
While you're high atop the Eiffel Tower, it's comforting to know that the structure was engineered to sway no more than five inches in a strong wind. Even more remarkable, the tower actually "grows" up to nearly six inches during hot weather -- a result of metal expansion.
The tower was never meant to be a permanent installation on the Paris skyline, and it was nearly dismantled in 1909. Only the emerging field of radio telegraphy saved it -- antennas mounted on the tower proved vital to French transmissions. Over the decades since then, the tower has played important roles for the International Time Service, transatlantic radio telephone service, radio broadcasting, and French television.
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The view from the top of the Eiffel Tower is particularly enchanting in the evening, when city lights glitter on the Seine and romance fills the air. The structure itself is lighted from within, flooded with a radiance that transforms the tower into a jewel box of silver and gold. New lights were installed as part of a major facelift the tower received in 1986
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As a tourist you can't go to Paris and not see the Eiffel Tower. That's because you can see it from all over the city. You even see it when you are flying over Paris taking off or landing. Going to the top of the Eiffel Tower is another thing. I did not visit it until the last morning of my third visit to Paris. Our late afternoon flight gave us an entire morning to do as we wished and except for having to race back to the hotel to be out of the room by noon, there was plenty of time to take a cab and take the elevator to the top. But when I got to the famous landmark there was a half hour line for the elevators and I was resigned to wandering around taking photosfrom the bottom.
But before I could bask in the glory I had to climb the thing which was not an easy task. I began counting the steps, just as a way to make the time pass, but after awhile it just made me more tired and I started counting the landings instead. Even that required too much extra effort. I could see I was making great progress by looking at the buildings around me but whenever I looked up at the first platform which was my destination, it seemed like I still had a long way to go and I might not make it. I started feeling my age. My fifty-year old heart was straining and my lungs hurt with every breath, still I pushed on. I passed people going down and they looked at me with a sort of pity, having been in my situation a half-hour before (about the time I estimated it would take me to recuperate). I did go to my local bar at home and I did say in a loud voice that I had climbed the Eiffel Tower that morning. But nobody was impressed. The only response was from a woman nearby who pronounced that she too loved Paris and then started to let us know how much she knew the city until in the end we had to change the subject to basketball just so she would leave us alone. So I did not get a reward or the respect I thought that climbing the Eiffel tower would earn me. But I did get these really terrific pictures. Oh yeah. I was sore for days, but it was something to remember Paris by. Click on the first photo to enlarge and then click your way through. The above photos are clickable too. |
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| Hotels Recommended hotels within walking distance of the Eiffel Tower incl World Travel Pictures Review and GalleryTravel The WorldMay eiffel tower eiffel tower Eiffel Tower, the structure of open latticework supports made of puddle iron, was established for the Paris Exhibition of 1889. The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII of England), inaugurated the opening ceremony. Than 700 proposals submitted in a design competition, one was unanimously chosen, a radical creation from the structure of the French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, who assisted in the design by engineers Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier, and architect Stephen Sauvestre.  eiffel tower However, the controversial tower caused some strong reactions, and a petition of 300 names – including those of Guy de Maupassant, Emile Zola, Charles Garnier (architect of the Opera Garnier), and Alexandre Dumas Fils – was presented to the city government, protesting construction companies. The petition reads, “We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and lovers of the beauty of Paris, do protest with all our strength and all our anger, in the name of French taste and endangered French art and history, useful against the Eiffel Tower and horrible. ”  eiffel tower nature lovers thought that it would disturb the flight of birds in Paris. But the Eiffel Tower was admired by Rousseau, Utrillo, Chagall, and Delaunay. It was almost torn down in 1909 at the expiration of leases of 20 years, but was saved because the antenna – used for telegraphy at that time. Beginning in 1910 became part of the International Time Service. French radio (since 1918), and French television (since 1957) also have made use of his height. In 1960, it was the subject of a beautiful study by Roland Barthes semiologist.  eiffel tower Built to celebrate the achievements of science and engineering its age, soaring 300 m / 984 ft. (320.75m / 1,052 ft. including antenna) and weighs 7000 tons, the structure consists of two parts, looks different: base consists of a platform resting on four separate supports (called pylons or bents) and, above this, a slender tower created as the bents taper upward, rising above a second platform to merge in a unified column.  eiffel tower This work was unprecedented, the world’s tallest structure until the Empire State Building was built about 40 years later, it has several predecessors. Among them are the iron railway viaducts designed by Eiffel-supported, an arched bridge over the River Douro in Portugal with a span of 160 m (525 ft), and design for a tower, iron ring-frame proposed by the American engineers Clarke and Reeves for the Centennial Exposition 1876. Eiffel knew and publicly acknowledged this influence, he is no stranger to the United States, which is designed wrought iron pole in Frederic Bartholdi’s Statue of Liberty in 1885. Later that same year, he also began work on the cupola of the Nice observatory. Eiffel leading European authority on the aerodynamics of high frames (he wrote “The Resilience of Water” in 1913). In the construction of the Eiffel Tower, the curve of the basic pillars precisely calculated so that the flexural and shear strength of the wind was getting turned into a compression force, the bents could withstand more effectively. Such is the engineering magic that even the Eiffel tower in the strongest wind is never swayed more than 4-1/2 inches. The superskyscrapers established since 1960, such as the World Trade Center, constructed in much the same way.  eiffel tower However difficult its birth may have been, the Eiffel Tour is now completely accepted by French citizens, and is recognized internationally as one of the symbols of Paris itself.  Contact ar Eiffel Rive Gauche Hotel, situated on a lovely quiet street, between the Tour Eiffel, Invalides and Champs-Elysees. The 2-star Hotel Saint Dominique is an 18th century former convent and the 2-star Hotel Tour Eiffel is located on a quiet street right near the monument. You can't get much closer to the Eiffel Tower than the 3-star La Bourdonnais Hotel or the 4-star Pullman Paris Tour Eiffel Hotel. | ||||
, prior to the observance of its 100th birthday in 1989. A great deal of rust was removed during the work, restoring the tower to a gleaming appearance in daytime as well.
Although the panorama of the city from on top can't be surpassed, the best view of the tower itself is from below. If you position yourself between the tower's feet and look up, you'll appreciate the grace of the iron latticework and see a dramatically distorted perspective of the tower soaring overhead. You'll be sharing this experience with other people from all over the world: Each year the Eiffel Tower draws some six million admirers wanting to see the world-famous symbol of Paris. Its perennial popularity is assured.
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