The iconic Eiffel Tower also knowns as “La dame de fer” or “iron Lady” is one of the most popular and most visited monuments in the world. More than 7 million people visit this place each year. Its name derived from the engineer Gustava Eiffel whose company designed and built the tower.
The tower is a wrought iron lattice structure and was built on March 15, 1889 and opened 31 March 1889 which was started on 28 January 1887. It was first designed as a temporary structure and the plan was to demolish it in 1909. But as the tower proved valuable for radiotelegraphy and that’s why it was allowed to remain despite being the expiry of the permit. From 1910 it became part of the international time service.
The tower has survived two world wars and has seen many other buildings come and go.
It has 108 stories which consist of 1710 steps. The visitors are allowed to climb the stairs of the first platform which is 190 feet above the ground. Also, two elevators are available in the tower. On average one elevator travels total of 64001 miles or 103000 km in each year. An average of 25000 people visits this historic monument each day.
The overall weight of the Eiffel tower is approximately 10100 tonnes or 10100000 kg. Which is equal to 22266688 pounds or about the weight of 95 blue whales. Current height of this monument is 1063 feet or 324 meters including the antenna. and the total width on the ground floor is 410 feet. Without the antenna, its height is 984 feet or 300 meters.
Total construction cost was 7,799,401.31 French gold francs which is equal to 1.5 million dollars in 1889.
Overall weight of the metal frame is around 7300 tons or 7.3 million kg.
Until 1930 the Eiffel Tower was the tallest man-made structure in the world, 1063 feet. And in 1930, the Chrysler building in New York took the title from Eiffel Tower which is 1046 feet tall. The tower is made of 18038 wrought iron which is held by 2,500,000 rivets. Also total of 7341 tonnes of wrought iron was used to build it.
The tower has 5 billion lights which hights up Paris city in every night to increase the romance and excitement of the city. Every seven years intervals approximately 50 tons of paint are required to prevent the rust of the tower.
The tower has engraved 72 names of French scientists, engineers, mathematicians who contributed to building the tower.
Fun Facts:
>>The current design of the Eiffel Tower is not similar to the original one.
>>Eiffel Tower is now one of the world’s most beloved landmarks. But believe it or not during the time of its conception over 300 people (consisting of France’s leading artists and designers) signature a petition against it. There were concerns among nature lovers that its heigh could be harmful to the birds of Paris.
>>The size of the Eiffel Tower changes when the weather changes. Because of the sun tower grow about 6 inches or 15 cm.
>>The Eiffel Tower once was sold by a con artist by saying that the city is not able to afford the structure cost!
>>Latticed wrought iron was used to construct this tower to make it as strong as stone while being lighter.
>>At the top of the tower, the founder Gustava built a small apartment and laboratory for his own use.
