Imagine yourself standing at the top of a tall building, one that is the most famous building in the world. You look out on all sides and can see the whole city around you. There are old fashioned buildings and cars. People are walking and talking together. Some people are riding bikes and some ride on boats that are floating along on the river below you. The boats disappear for a second as they cross beneath below you. But they reappear again and cruise slowly along their way. You are in Paris and the building you are visiting is the Eiffel Tower.
There are many important and famous buildings in the world but one of the most famous, loved by people everywhere is the Eiffel Tower in Paris. You have probably heard of the Eiffel Tower before, but have you ever wondered how it was made? Or why?
The Eiffel Tower was built in 1889 and is now the most recognizable building in the world. Can you imagine what it would have taken to build something like this in the old days? When it was first built, many local people in Paris were not sure that they would like it. They doubted that it would be a good building and some did not want it to be built in their city.
The idea for the Eiffel Tower came about as part of the planning for the World’s Fair in 1889. Paris was the host of the World’s Fair that year to mark the 100-year anniversary of the French Revolution. The City of Paris wanted to host a memorable event and wow the crowds that would come there. Memorable means something worth remembering because it is special.
The City asked for designers and artists to create plans for a monument for the city to mark the event. A monument is a statue, building, or other structure that is meant to be a symbol for something. In this case, it was meant to be a symbol marking the World Fair. More than 100 artists submitted plans for the monument. It was going to be built on a famous street called the Champ-de-Mars in central Paris. It was going to be the entrance to the fair when it started.
The winning company was a consulting and construction firm owned by an architect named Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel. An architect is a person who designs buildings and often oversees their construction.
While Mr. Eiffel often receives credit for designing the Eiffel Tower, it was actually one of his employees, an engineer named Maurice Koechlin, who came up with the idea. The design idea came to him because a few years before that, the two men had bought the metal and he had been trying to find a project they could use it for.
The final design for the Eiffel Tower required more than 18,000 pieces iron and 2.5 million rivets. Rivets are short metal pins used for holding together two plates of metal. Several hundred workers spent two years putting together the frame of the tower. When it was finished it was almost 1,000 feet high and was the tallest structure in the world at the time. It weighs around 10,000 tonnes!
At the time of the World’s Fair, the tower was lit up by hundreds of game lamps and a beacon sent out beams of red, white and blue. Searchlights from the tower illuminated different parts of the fair. The start and end of the fair each day was announced by a cannon explosion from the top.
At the top the set up a post office where visitors to the fair could send postcards to friends and family. Many famous people visited the Eiffel Tower during the World’s Fair. These included the Prince of Wales, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Thomas Edison. Thomas Edison, an engineer himself was particularly impressed with the tower.
There were also millions of regular people who visited the Eiffel Tower during the World’s Fair and afterwards. Many were very impressed with it, but some were not. Some people who lived in Paris thought that it changed the way the city looked and thought it was ugly.
At first, only the Eiffel Tower’s second-floor platform was open to the public. Today, all the levels are open and two of them even have restaurants. The first two levels can be accessed by stairs, but the top, third level, requires taking an elevator to get to.
When the Eiffel Tower was originally built, it was meant to be a temporary building for the World’s Fair that would be torn down later. However, the city realized that it could be used as a radio tower and so they decided to keep it. Many years later, the Eiffel Tower was used to intercept enemy radio communications during the first world war.
Throughout the years, the Eiffel Tower has been used for many important ceremonies and events. It has also appeared in many, many movies. It has become such a popular building that there are now more than 30 structures around the world that are copies of the Eiffel Tower design, including one in Las Vegas.
In 1986, the Eiffel Tower was renovated. Renovated means to restore something so that it looks nice. It is now repainted every seven years to keep it looking fresh. Every time it is repainted, it uses 50 tonnes of paint!.
Every year more than 7 million people visit the Eiffel Tower. It is the most frequently visited structure in the world. The French name for the Eiffel Tower is “La Tour Eiffel”, it also has the nickname “La dame de fer” which means the iron lady.
There are more than 500 people who work at the Eiffel Tower. They work in its restaurants and maintaining its safety and security. There are people who clean it and there are people that run the elevator that takes visitors to the top.
At the top of the Eiffel Tower, you can look out and see the beautiful view of Paris. People from all over the world come not only to look at the Eiffel Tower, but also to ride to the top and see the beautiful city of Paris, which is also called the City of Lights.
Have you ever been to the Eiffel Tower? Would you like to visit it one day? If you want to visit somewhere like this, keep the vision of it in your mind. There are many people who have dreamed of visiting the Eiffel Tower with someone they love or on their own and have made it happen by saving money and making plans to visit. Can you picture yourself standing on the top of the tower and looking out on the beautiful view? Hopefully you will get a chance to visit one day.