Eiffel tower position how to#

The sun also causes the tower to grow about 6 inches.

As the sun-facing side of the tower heats up, the top moves as much as 7 inches (18 centimeters) away from the sun.

The tower was built to sway slightly in the wind, but the sun affects the tower more.

It was the world's tallest structure until the Chrysler Building was built in New York in 1930.

Without the antenna, it is 984 feet (300 m).

The Eiffel Tower is 1,063 feet (324 meters) tall, including the antenna at the top.

Construction of the Eiffel Tower cost 7,799,401.31 French gold francs in 1889, or about $1.5 million.

Eiffel also created the internal frame for the Statue of Liberty.

Gustave Eiffel used latticed wrought iron to construct the tower to demonstrate that the metal could be as strong as stone while being lighter.

The tower has since been repainted 18 times. To protect the tower from the elements, workers painted every inch of the structure, a feat that required 60 tons of paint. The wrought-iron structure is composed of four immense arched legs, set on masonry piers that curve inward until joining in a single, tapered tower.īuilding the tower required 2.5 million thermally assembled rivets and 7,300 tons of iron.

) Construction of the Eiffel TowerĮach of the 18,000 pieces used to build the tower was calculated specifically for the project and prepared in Eiffel's factory on the outskirts of Paris. Overall, the tower is lined with 5 billion lights. Construction of the tower was completed in just over two years, on March 31, 1889.Ī 2011 light show at the Eiffel Tower used 20,000 bulbs. When construction of the tower began on the Champs de Mars, a group of 300 artists, sculptors, writers and architects sent a petition to the commissioner of the Paris Exposition, pleading him to halt construction of the 'ridiculous tower' that would dominate Paris like a 'gigantic black smokestack.'īut the protests of Paris' artistic community fell on deaf ears. The structure, its appearance is completely new and modern.' 'However, with the Eiffel Tower they changed completely the way they were using the new material. It's very visible on - for example, pillars in the Bibliotheque Ste.-Genevieve in Paris,' explained Gudek Snajdar. When they were using it, they would try to repeat historic stone structures.

Eiffel tower position how to#

'The biggest problem was that they still didn't know how to make something aesthetically appealing with the new material. But in 1887, it had only appeared internally, as support structures, or in unimportant buildings like hothouses, factories and bridges. Iron, which was newly popular as a building material because of the Industrial Revolution, became a cornerstone of modern architecture. But it was doing it in a very shy way,' said Gudek Snajdar. 'Modern architecture was emerging slightly in Paris before the Eiffel Tower. But in the late 19th century, nothing had been seen like it.

But not everyone in Paris was thrilled with the idea of a giant metal monument looming over the city.Įven to contemporary eyes, the Eiffel Tower is unique. The Eiffel company's design won, and construction of the wrought-iron tower began in July 1887.