![]() ![]() Three glass-and-steel pavilions have also been added, tilted to follow the curves of the pillars, which house some reception areas, and an immersive film show about the history of the tower. A highlight of the renovation? The transparent floor across the esplanade that allows you to feel like you’re flying over the crowds below. The first floor, at 57 metres above ground level (345 steps), has been extensively revamped. Today it remains Paris’s most visited monument. And, until the inauguration of the Empire State Building in 1931, was the tallest building in the world!īuilt as a technological showcase for France, the audacious and monumental tower propelled the country into modernity. In 1887, the French government determined they agreed as well and construction on the monument began.Nothing so high had been built since the Great Pyramid! Constructed over two years for the Exposition Universelle of 1889 and the centenary of the French Revolution, the Eiffel Tower soars up 300 metres high. In hindsight, it appears that Eiffel was right. Will the city of Paris go on to associate itself with the baroques, with the mercantile imaginations of a machine builder, to become irreparably ugly and dishonor itself? For the Eiffel Tower, which commercial America itself would not want, is, doubtless, the dishonor of Paris.Įveryone feels it, everyone says it, everyone deeply grieves it, and we are only a weak echo of the universal opinion, so legitimately alarmed.”ĭesigner Gustave Eiffel argued that they were not only a country of artists and entertainers, but also engineers and builders with the desire to have their vision seen and their progress made. “We have come, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and passionate devotees of the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, to protest with all our strength, all our indignation, in the name of slighted French taste…against the erection, in the heart of our capital, of this useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower… They filed an article in Le Temps to publicly express their disdain for the piece: Thankfully, the construction was carried out and is now the unmistakable symbol of the city, but at the time, it was not revered as such.Įven before the construction commenced, the Eiffel Tower was met by mass protests led by Parisian critics who called the landmark a disastrous eyesore.Ī group of famous artists even gathered a petition to shoot down plans for the monument. Some even calling it a “truly tragic streetlamp,” a “mast of iron gymnasium apparatus, incomplete, confused and deformed.” While some people were celebrating the progress and looking forward to the display of revolution, others were disappointed in the construction. ![]() This structure showed promise for industrial revolution and advancement in the future and propelled the already motivated French builders to execute this project. Leading up to the World Fair, the organizers held a design competition all over France to come up with different ideas on how to improve the city, and the tower was one of the frontrunners of the race.Īdditionally, at the time, The Eiffel Tower was the tallest building in the world. The Revolution was aimed at eliminating the divine rights of kings and ending dictatorships to install a democratic system of government. It was also a commemoration of France’s own independence and the centennial of the French Revolution. It was first called the 300-meter tower but it quickly took the name of the man who built it into what we know today, The Eiffel Tower. The Fair covered the entire Champ de Mars in Paris and its main focus was the industrial advancement and use of iron and steel in construction and the impact it’s had on the industry. The Eiffel Tower was built to be one of the main attractions of The Paris World Fair in 1889.
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