Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower (French: la Tour Eiffel) is a metallic tower built on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France, and is nowadays the most famous landmark and symbol of Paris. At the time it was built (1889), it was the tallest building in the world and remained so until 1930. Named after its designer, engineer Gustave Eiffel, it is a premier tourist destination, with over 5.5 million visitors per year.

The name is pronounced in French, but English speakers often adopt a German-sounding pronunciation , similar to "eye-full".

Background

The structure was built from 1887 to 1889 as the entrance arch for the Exposition Universelle (1889), a World's fair marking the centennial celebration of the French revolution. It was inaugurated on March 31, 1889, and opened on May 6. Three hundred workers joined together 18,038 pieces of puddled 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. Yet, because Eiffel took good care of his workers with movable stagings, guard-rails and screens, only one man died (during the installation of Otis Elevator's lifts) -- which was remarkable at the time.

The tower is 300 meters (986 feet) tall, not including the 24-meter television antenna on top. The metal structure weighs in at 7,300 metric tons (the total weight is 10,100 metric tons). It was the world's tallest structure for 40 years. According to the official website for the tower, the summit is reached by 1,665 steps and not, as popularly believed, by 1,792 steps (the same as the year of the First French Republic).

Maintenance on the tower includes applying 50 metric tons of three graded tones of paint every 7 years to protect it from rust. On occasion, the color of the paint is changed. The tower is currently painted to a shade of brown. On the first floor, there are interactive consoles hosting a poll for the color to use for a future session of painting. Depending on the ambient temperature, the top of the Eiffel Tower will shift away from the sun by eight centimetres because of expansion of the sun-warmed metal.

The tower was met with resistance from the public when it was first built, since many thought it would be an eyesore. Today, it is widely considered to be one of the most striking pieces of architectural art in the world.

One of the great Hollywood movie clichés is that the view from a Parisian window always includes the Eiffel Tower. In reality, one can be a few hundred meters away from the tower and unable to see it.

Originally, Eiffel had a permit to leave the tower standing for 20 years, more than recouping his expenses, but, as it proved valuable for communication purposes, it was allowed to stay after the end of the permit.

Installations

The lace-like iron detailing

Since the beginning of the 20th century the Eiffel Tower has been used for transmission purposes. Until the 1950s there was a triangular area aerial consisting of several wires running from the top to anchor points on the Mars field. This aerial was fed by transmitters which were in small housings on the Mars field and used for longwave transmission. Since 1957 the Eiffel Tower is used as transmission tower for FM and TV and therefore has an aerial on the top.

The Eiffel Tower has two restaurants: Altitude 95, on the first floor (95 m above sea level); and the Jules Verne, an expensive gastronomical restaurant in the second floor, with a private elevator, with one star in the Michelin Red Guide.

Events

Father Theodor Wulf in 1910 took observations of radiant energy radiation at the top and bottom of the Eiffel Tower, discovering more than was expected at the top, and thereby detecting what are today known as cosmic rays.

In 1925, the con artist Victor Lustig twice "sold" the Eiffel Tower for scrap.

In 1930, the Tower lost the title of the World's tallest structure when the Chrysler Building was completed in New York.

From 1925 to 1934, illuminated signs for Citroën adorned three of the tower's four sides, making it the tallest billboard in the world at the time.

When Adolf Hitler visited occupied Paris in 1940, the lift cables were cut by the French so that he would have to climb the 1,665 steps to the summit - the part to repair them was allegedly impossible to obtain because of the war, though it was working again within hours of the departure of the Nazis. He chose to stay on the ground. A Frenchman also scaled the tower during the German occupation to hang the French flag.

On January 3, 1956 a fire damaged the top of the tower.

In 1959 the present radio antenna was added to the top.

In the 1980s an old restaurant and its supporting iron scaffolding midway up the tower was dismantled; this was purchased and reconstructed in New Orleans, Louisiana, originally as the Tour Eiffel Restaurant, more recently known as the Red Room.

In the year 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.

The tower received its 200,000,000th guest on November 28, 2002.

At 19:20 on July 22, 2003, a fire occurred at the top of the tower in the broadcasting equipment room. The entire tower was evacuated; the fire was extinguished after forty minutes, and there were no reports of injuries.

The 72 names

Main article: The 72 names on the Eiffel Tower.

On the tower, the 72 names of French scientists and engineers are engraved in recognition of their contributions.This engraving was overpainted at the beginning of the 20th century and restored in 1986-1987 by SNTE ("Société Nouvelle d'Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel"), a company contracted to operate business related to the Tower (the Tower is owned by the City of Paris).

Image copyright

Images of the Eiffel Tower have long been in the public domain; however in 2003, the operating company SNTE installed a new lighting display on the tower, the design of which they then copyrighted. The effect is to put the night-time image of the tower under copyright. It follows that it is no longer legal to publish contemporary photographs of the tower without permission.

The imposition of copyright is not without some controversy. 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. [1] (http://blog.fastcompany.com/archives/2005/02/02/eiffel_tower_repossessed.html)

In a recent decision, the Court of Cassation ruled that an architect could not claim copyright over images including one building the design of which they held the copyright of if the photograph encompasses a larger area. This seems to indicate that SNTE cannot claim copyright on photographs of Paris incorporating the lighted tower at night.

Appearance in film

• 1949: In the film The Man On The Eiffel Tower the Tower plays a central role, and the climactic scene involves a climbing chase that predates the Mount Rushmore scene of North by Northwest.
• 1951: The Lavender Hill Mob - models of the tower are central to the plot, and the climax takes place on the real tower.
• 1953: In the end of The War of the Worlds, the tower is seen destroyed.
• 1965: At the end of the Blake Edwards movie The Great Race, starring Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, [2] (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059243/) the tower is blown up by a misfired cannon shot from Professor Fate's car.
• 1970: The tower is shown in the classic animated film The Aristocats.
• 1980: The tower (and the rest of Paris) were almost blown up by a terrorist nuclear bomb and Lois Lane almost plunged to her death under its elevator in Superman II.
• 1981: Condorman attempts to fly off of the tower in the movie by the same name.
• 1985: The James Bond film A View to a Kill contains a scene in the Eiffel Tower including scenes in a fictional restaurant there.
• 1985: In the film National Lampoon's European Vacation, Rusty throws his beret off the Tower. A dog, thinking it is a frisbe, jumps after it. Because they sought a PG-13 rating, however, the dog is not seen dying, but rather, inexplicably survives the fall.
• 1996: The Eiffel Tower can be seen on TV in Independence Day.
• 1996: In Mars Attacks!, the Eiffel Tower is destroyed by Martians.
• 1998: The tower is destroyed in Armageddon.
• 2000: In Rugrats in Paris: The Movie, the babies are atop the tower while using the giant Reptar invention.
• 2003: In The Core, the cloud turns into a storm or something, and another turning cloud is seen on the sky with the Eiffel Tower under it (which it is in real-life).
• 2003: In The Real World Paris television show on the US MTV network, the tower is seen in all or some episodes.
• 2003: The Tower is featured in Looney Tunes: Back In Action.
• 2004: In Van Helsing, the Eiffel Tower is under construction.
• 2004: In Team America: World Police, a rocket blows the tower up, then the tower falls on the Arc de Triomphe.
• 2004: The tower flew and moved around Paris in the puppet version of Without a Paddle, in a scene that starts only after the credits end.
• 2004: In Godzilla: Final Wars, Kamacuras or Kumonga attacks the tower.
• 2004: The tower is seen in Eurotrip.

Imitations and reproductions

Several reproductions/models of the Eiffel Tower (often smaller-scale) exist.

Imitations (similar towers, not scale models)

In order of decreasing height:

• Kiev TV Tower, Kiev, Ukraine - At 385m, the world's tallest lattice tower, with similarities to the Eiffel Tower, although with no observation deck for visitors.
• Riga Radio and TV Tower, Riga, Latvia - 368.5 m concrete tower on three legs, in similar style to the Eiffel Tower.
• Dragon Tower, Harbin - a 336 metre high lattice tower at Harbin, China.
• Tokyo Tower, Tokyo, Japan - (9m higher than the original (33 m if the TV antenna is excluded)).
• TV Tower Yerevan, Yerevan, Armenia - 311.7 m high lattice tower built from 1974 to 1977
• St. Petersburg TV Tower, St. Petersburg, Russia - 310 m lattice tower without observation deck, resembling the Eiffel Tower.
• Star Tower, Cincinnati, Ohio - 291.4 m transmission tower from a similar design, but without observation deck.
• Qingdao TV Tower, China - 232 m TV tower with observation deck.
• Crystal Palace Transmitter, London, England - 222 m TV tower without observation deck, nicknamed London's Eiffel Tower.
• Brasilia TV Tower, Brasilia, Brazil - 218 m lattice tower with an observation deck at a height of 75 m.
• Guangzhou TV Tower, Guangzhou, China - A 217 metre high TV tower of lattice steel at Guangzhou
• Guangdong TV Tower, Guangdong, China - A 200 metre high TV tower of lattice steel at Guangdong
• Nagoya TV Tower, Nagoya, Japan - 180 m
• Odinstårnet, Odense, Denmark - A 177 metre high lattice tower, destroyed in 1944
• Blackpool Tower, Blackpool, England - 158 m (519 ft); it is not quite a free-standing structure, it stands above the Tower Circus complex, where the four "legs" can be seen.
• Croydon Transmitter - A 152 metre high transmission tower at London without observation deck
• Radio Tower Berlin, Berlin, Germany - 150m transmission tower with observation deck. Sometimes nicknamed as a copy of the Eiffel Tower, although the two structures are not too similar. The Radio Tower Berlin is the only observation tower whose feet are insulated against ground.
• Sapporo TV Tower, Sapporo, Japan - 147 m.
• Beppu Tower, Beppu, Japan - 100 m, [3] (http://www2.odn.ne.jp/yoko-tower/list1-e.htm)
• Zendstation Zwollerkerspel - 90 m high radio tower remembering to Eiffel Tower
• Tour métallique de Fourvière, Lyon, France - 85.7 m lattice tower built from 1892 to 1894. Used until 1953 as an observation tower, but is now a TV Tower closed to visitors.
• Torre del Reformador, Guatemala City, Guatemala - 75 m.
• Transmitter Brookmans Park - two 60.96 metre high lattice towers, insulated against ground
• Petrinska rozhledna, Prague, Czech Republic - 60 m, built in 1891.
• Watkins' Tower, Wembley Park, London, England - never completed, demolished in 1907.
• Joseph's Cross, Stolberg/Harz, Germany - 38 m observation tower in form of a double-cross, resembling the Eiffel Tower.
• Woodwards Building, Vancouver, Canada - A small reproduction on the roof of the building is topped by a signature neon "W". This building is now being converted into social housing. [4] (http://www.downtowneastside.ca/images/woody/wo08.jpg)

Reproductions (scale models)

In order of decreasing height:

• in front of the Paris Las Vegas hotel/casino on the Las Vegas Strip, Paradise, Nevada, near Las Vegas, USA - 165 m (540 ft, scale 1:2). [5] (http://www.timshell.com/pics/lasvegas/EiffelTower2.jpg)
• Shenzhen, China - ~100 m (scale 1:3)
• Paramount's Kings Island, Ohio, USA - ~100 m (scale 1:3)
• Paramount's Kings Dominion, Virginia, USA - 84 m (275 ft, scale 1:3.59)
• Slobozia, Romania - 54 m.
• In Parizh, Chelyabinsk_Oblast, Nagaybaksky_District,_Chelyabinsk_Oblast, Russia. Its height is 50 m, built by South Ural Cell Telephone company, used as a cell phone tower.
• Replications at Disneylands
• On a roof of an industrial building in Satteldorf, Germany
• As a Meccano model, housed at the Technology Museum of Georgia (Atlanta, GA). It is 11m high: [6] (http://www.dalefield.com/mwes/history/eiffel_tower.html)

Further remarkable lattice towers

Many remarkable lattice towers were and are nicknamed Eiffel Tower. The Radio Tower Gliwice was nicknamed "Eiffel Tower of Upper Silesia" and the wood framework tower of the transmitter Ismaning, which was demolished in 1983 was called the "Bavarian Eiffel Tower".

• KCTV-Tower, Kansas, USA
• Nordschwarzwaldturm, Schömberg, Germany
• Kvitsoy-Tower, Kvitsoy, Norway
• Soelvesborg Twin Towers, Soelvesborg, Sweden
• Towers of Santa Palomba, Santa Palomba, Italy
• Transmitter Santa Maria di Galeria, Italy
• Transmitter Sottens, Sottens, Switzerland
• Central tower Koenigs Wusterhausen (destroyed), Koenigs Wusterhausen, Germany
• Towers of NSS Annapolis, USA (destroyed)
• Transmitter Kalundborg, Kalundborg, Denmark
• VLF transmitter Grimeton, Grimeton, Sweden
• Schuchowsk radio tower, Moscow, Russia
• Richtfunkstelle Berlin-Frohnau, Berlin, Germany
• Torre TV Bandeirantes, São Paulo, Brazil
• Sutro Tower, San Francisco, USA
• Longwave transmitter Lahti, Lahti, Finland
• Longwave transmitter Motala, Motala, Sweden
• HBG Prangins, Prangins, Switzerland
• Blosenbergturm, Beromuenster, Switzerland
• Transmission Tower Mulhouse-Belvédère, Mulhouse, France
• Longwave transmitter Junglinster, Junglinster, Luxembourg
• Transmitter Orfordness, Orfordness, United Kingdom
• Pylon in the artificial lake of Santa Maria, Switzerland
• Elbe crossing 1, Stade, Germany
• Elbe crossing 2, Stade, Germany
• Overhead line crossing Suez Canal, Egypt
• Bosporus overhead line crossing I, Istambul, Turkey
• Bosporus overhead line crossing II, Istambul, Turkey
• Bosporus overhead line crossing III, Istambul, Turkey
• Pylons of Messina, Messina, Italy
• Pylons of Cadiz, Cadiz, Spain
• Pylons of Voerde, Voerde, Germany
• Pylons of Duisburg-Rheinhausen, Duisburg, Germany
• Kobe Port Tower, Kobe, Japan
• Hakata Port Tower, Fukuoka, Japan
• Marine Tower Yokohama, Yokohama, Japan
• Tsutenkaku, Osaka, Japan
• Sunsphere, Knoxville, USA
• Hiratsuka TV Tower, Hiratsuka, Japan
• Green Tower, Chiba, Japan
• Osaka ABC Tower, Osaka, Japan
• Observation tower of la Cité de l'Énergie, Shawinigan, Canada
• Pillar of the third section of Gletscherbahn Kaprun, Kaprun, Austria
• Kherson TV Tower
• Mannesmann Tower Hannover, Hannover, Germany
• Mannesmann Tower Vienna, Vienna, Austria
• Directional Radio Tower Mühlacker, Mühlacker, Germany
• Directional Radio Tower Stuttgart-Möhringen, Stuttgart, Germany
• Zendstation Ugchelen, Netherlands
• Vasco-da-Gama-Tower, Lisbon, Portugal
• Shijiazhuang TV-tower, Shijiazhuang, China
• Transmission Tower Hardberg, Hardberg, Germany
• Piatkowo TV Tower, Poznan, Poland
• FM/TV-Tower of transmitter Wavre, Belgium
• Radio Tower Colmar, Colmar, France
• Radio Tower Bonhoure, Toulouse, France
• Ionosonde Juliusruh, Juliusruh, Germany
• First transmission tower Emley Moor, Emley Moor, UK (dismantled)

See also

• World Federation of Great Towers
• List of towers

Access

• Metro: Trocadéro (9) or Bir-Hakeim (6)
• RER: Champs-de-Mars - Tour-Eiffel (C)

External links

Template:Commons

• Official website of the Eiffel Tower (http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/) - English version (http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/teiffel/uk/)
• The story of Eiffel Tower (http://www.cbsforum.com/cgi-bin/articles/partners/cbs/search.cgi?template=display&dbname=cbsarticles&key2=eiffel&action=searchdbdisplay) - by CBS Forum (http://www.cbsforum.com/)
• Live webcam showing the Eiffel tower (http://paris.tourismeville.wanadoo.fr/index.php?theme=affwebcam&id=21&arrdt=7&nom=TourEiffel&titre=Tour+Eiffel)
• Structurae: Eiffel Tower (http://www.structurae.net/structures/data/index.cfm?id=s0000021)
• Eiffel Tower at insecula.com (http://www.insecula.com/musee/M0054.html/) (site in French)
• Discover France - Eiffel Tower (http://www.discoverfrance.net/France/Paris/Monuments-Paris/Eiffel.shtml)
• Panoramic photo of the Eiffel Tower (http://www.panoramas.dk/fullscreen/fullscreen32.html) in QuickTime VR format
• Eiffel Tower from Space (http://www.photoglobe.info/spc_eiffel_tower.html)als:Eiffelturm

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