Eiffel Tower

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The Eiffel Tower was built to be one the main attractions at the Paris World's Fair in 1889. That year, the World's Fair covered the entire Champ de Mars in Paris and its focus was the vast constructions in iron and steel that were the great industrial advancement of that time. At evening show it sparkles in its beautiful lights for about 5 minutes every hour.

The tower has three levels - with restaurants on the first two floors and the observation deck on the third. Built initially as a temporary structure, the tower is at present amongst the most visited sites in the world and has turned into a celebrated example of a one-off style of architecture. First called the 300-meter Tower, it soon took the name of the man who built it, Gustave Eiffel. The Tower opened to the public the same day as the World's Fair, on May 15, 1889.

Controversy over the Tower raged in the art world before and during its construction, but thanks to the audacity of its architecture and design, visitors and Parisians immediately fell under its charm and more than 2 million people toured it in the first year.

Why is the Eiffel Tower famous ?

Since it was built and opened to the public in 1889, the Eiffel Tower instantly gained an international fame, as it was then the tallest building in the world. Its peculiar iron silhouette instantly traveled across the world in the newspapers. Built for the 1889 Exposition universelle (World's Fair) which took place in Paris, Gustave Eiffel's masterpiece aimed to show to the world the audacity of the French in the industrial and technological domains at the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution.

Being the first tower to reach the height of 1,000 feet - twice as any structure previously erected- the Eiffel Tower remained the highest building in the world during 40 years: until the Empire State Building was erected in New York in 1931!

THE EIFFEL TOWER BY THE NUMBERS

• When the tower opened in the 19th century, it was the world's tallest building at 1,024 feet (312.11 meters).

• The Eiffel Tower has 1,665 stairs and three viewing platforms.

• Nearly 50 miles of electric cables cover the structure.

• There are 120 antennas atop the Eiffel Tower.

• The tower is made of 18,000 iron pieces bolted together by over 2.5 million rivets.

• 20,000 light bulbs illuminate the landmark every night