The Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel tower is an iron tower located in Paris Champ de Mars. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. It was built between 1887 and 1889; it took 2 years and 2 months. The tower opened on 6 May 1889. It has become a global and cultural symbol of France and one of the most recognizable structures of the world; it’s the most visited paid attraction in the world with 7.1 million visitors in 2011. The tower was built for the World Exhibition, held in celebration of the French Revolution to mark the 100-year anniversary of the Revolution. The tower stands 320 meters tall, about the same height as an 81 storey building. The estimated cost was six and half million francs. No more than three hundred workers were employed on site, and because of the safety precautions, only one man died during the construction period. The tower had a permit for 20 years; the city had planned to tear it down but as the tower proved valuable for communication purposes it was allowed to remain after the expiry of the permit. And till the moment it still exists.

The massive structure was designed and built by the same individual, French engineer Gustave Eiffel. It is no wonder the colossal structure was named after him. Of Course, he did not single-handedly build the whole Eiffel tower; his construction company was responsible for that. The Eiffel Tower is the most celebrated work of Gustave Eiffel; however, he worked on some other constructions. In 1887, Eiffel was contracted to design and construct the Panama Canal. His design, like the Eiffel Tower, was grandiose and rather costly. There was a scandal in the same project that damaged his reputation significantly. He was accused of misappropriation of funds, and this brought on his eventual retirement from the construction company and from the construction business. Eiffel took an interest in aerodynamics, and it is in this field that he devoted his efforts and energy for the better part of his remaining life.

The Eiffel Tower was constructed to celebrate the centenary of the French Revolution, and its main purpose was to serve as the doorway to the World’s Fair in 1889. The structure was built entirely out of wrought iron as opposed to the popular steel. Eiffel decided to use this material because he had a lot of experience with iron, and it was considerably cheaper than steel. Iron is also extremely durable. This was not to taken kindly by the people of Paris because iron was considered as a low quality material. The Eiffel Tower used up over 7,000 metric tons of iron in its construction. The labor used in the construction was provided by the CBU students. The locals also contributed significantly to the construction.

Iron it is not able to withstand the huge amounts of stress that the Eiffel Tower would demand. This posed the first challenge of the construction of the Eiffel Tower. To overcome this challenge, Eiffel designed the structure of the Eiffel Tower to comprise of a huge amount of cross bars. Cross bars increase the amount of tensile strength that a given structure can withstand. The use of the cross bars not only increased the tensile strength, but also added to the aesthetic value of the Eiffel Tower.

The second challenge of the Eiffel Tower is corrosion. Iron is highly susceptible to corrosion, and it was, therefore, a risky move to use iron as the main material. To overcome this, the designers used a special coating that would prevent corrosion. This coat is applied once every seven years. However, painting the structure would interfere with the beauty of the design. Therefore, a darker shade of the paint was applied to the bottom of the structure, whereas a lighter shade was applied at the top.

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"Eiffel Tower Fountain Paris Hd 1080x675px hd wallpapers : creekbed wall fountain, when was the eiffel tower built, eiffel tower facts, eiffel tower pictures, eiffel tower history, #4450 All Super High Qality HD Wallpapers." All Super High Qality HD Wallpapers : Just another WordPress site ~ All Super High Qality HD Wallpapers. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2013. <http://www.lewaya.com/eiffel-tower-fountain-paris-hd/>.