#If all the iron in the Eiffel Tower, seen here from the
Palais de Chaillot, were melted down into the shape of its base. It would fill
the square to only 6cm deep
THE WORLD IS FILLED WITH
building and monuments named after monarchs, generals and businessmen, but it’s
rare to find great landmarks that credit the architects or engineers who
actually built them. The giant tower that greeted visitors to the Paris
Universal Exposition of 1889 was planned to be merely a temporary construction.
Perhaps that’s why it was excused from bearing
the name of some national symbol or lofty ideal, and instead commemorates the genius
of Gustave Eiffel.
To appreciate the impact of the Eiffel Tower on a Parisian of
1889, consider the timeline of the record-breaking structures that came before.
The Great Pyramid at Giza set an early standard, at over 140 metres tall. Much later,
a few medieval cathedrals managed to edge past it. By 1888, the tallest thing
made by man was the 169-metre Washington Monument a giant stone obelisk. Impressive, but still
something that a time-travelling ancient Egyptian would have instinctively
understood. So for 4,400 years the ceiling of architectural achievement had
been raised only modestly when Gustave Eiffel opened an entirely new chapter, with
a tower more than 300 meters high, and made not out of stone like all its
predecessors, but wrought iron.
‘Gustave Eiffel knew how to master the most advanced
technology of the time,’ says Stephane Dieu, who looks after the tower’s
heritage. ‘For a start, the foundations of the tower’s four pillars had to
built in damp soil close to the river. Above all, it was his faith and love of
science that guided him – you can see that from the frieze around the first
floor, which gives the names of 72 French scientists.’
The commercial success of a 300-metre observation tower was
only possible of course thanks to the invention of the elevator. Four sets of
diagonal lifts climb the tower’s splayed feet to the mid-levels, through a
lattice of girders that join in crosses and starbursts. The second journey is a
vertical one, up the centre of the structure. As the cabin glides ever higher,
the four edges of the tower close in around it. Just before it seems like the
iron is about to run out, the lift stops, and opens its doors.
Solving technical challenges was only part of Eiffel’s work.
When construction had hardly begun, some 50 of the leading French artists
and writers of the day signed a joint
letter to the press, condemning this ‘black and gigantic factory chimney’,
which would crush the great monuments of Paris under its ‘barbaric mass’. Eiffel
wrote a lengthy rebuttal: ‘Why should something that is admirable in Egypt
become hideous and ridiculous in Paris?’ he asked. Two years later, the tower
received nearly two million visitors during the exhibition.
And yet Eiffel’s supreme achievement was meant to be
dismantled by 1909. It was only saved on his insistence that it could serve as
a testing ground for scientific experiments and later as a radio transmitter.
Bridges
and buildings by Eiffel survive from Hungary to Bolivia. He even designed the
internal framework for the Statue of Liberty. But if it hadn’t been for Eiffel’s
determination, the tower that bears his name might be remembered today only
from a few yellowing postcards.
If you know your travel dates two or three months in
advance, it’s worth booking a timed ticket to skip long ticket office queues
(toureiffel.fr). you’ll need to print it out or show it on a smartphone screen.
