Model of the Eiffel tower (Артикул 9060)
The Eiffel Tower was built for the World’s Fair of 1889, marking the centennial celebration of the French Revolution. French engineer Gustave Eiffel, born in Dijon in 1832 and who died in 1923, drew the plans. He had also designed with Bartholdi the Statue of Liberty offered by the France to the United States in 1886. The choice of Gustave Eiffel to build a monument to the glory of the Third Republic was not fortuitous. Indeed, Eiffel was a staunch supporter of the Republic who believed in the future and in progress. The tower was therefore built as a symbol of the new times, the times of the Republic and of democracy.
When it was built, the tower was 300 meters high, and was the highest building in the world. Today it is 320 meters tall. In 1874, two American had imagined building a 914-meter tall tower in Philadelphia, which was unfortunately never brought to fruition. In the same period, two Frenchmen also designed a 300-meter tall building in masonry, which was way beyond the technical knowledge of the time. The dream of such a tower haunted architects for years until Gustave Eiffel accomplished this feat. When at the age of 54, he decided to build a 300-meter tall iron building he already had a successful career behind him. His ambition at that time was to accomplish a magnificent technical tour de force, build a masterpiece with no real function, something that would be called today a giant work of Installation Art or a powerful architectural gesture.
The Eiffel tower is also an icon of a new type of architecture, built in iron. At first, the public misunderstood the project. However architects, builders and engineers saw it as a precious opportunity to prove the structural and esthetic qualities of metal structures. The tower was highly popular during the fair, people were attracted by curiosity but also by the technical feat it represented.
The tower was quickly used for scientific and military purposes. It was the French Ministry of Defense that saved the structure from destruction twenty years later.
The tower weighs 7000 tons, has 1652 steps and sways 14 cm. In a clear day you can see 70 km in all directions. 2 500 000 rivets hold the structure together and much of the focus of the construction was on how it could withstand the wind. The Eiffel tower was lit with 10 000 gas lights at its inauguration. Edoux produced the iron for the tower and Otis built the elevators.