Eiffel Tower

A wrought-iron lattice tower built for the 1889 World's Fair, now the defining symbol of Paris.

The tower is 330 metres tall, about as high as an 81-storey building, and its square base measures 125 metres on each side. Many artists disliked it at first, but today it is the best-known symbol of France and one of the most visited paid monuments on Earth, welcoming millions of people every year. Parisians call it "La dame de fer", the Iron Lady.

How it was built

The tower was made from 18,038 pieces of wrought iron, a strong, workable kind of iron. The pieces were shaped in a factory just outside Paris and brought to the site by horse-drawn cart. Workers joined them with about 2.5 million rivets, which are metal pins hammered tight to hold parts together. No piece was cut or drilled on site: if a part did not fit, it went back to the factory. The idea for the shape came from Maurice Koechlin, an engineer in Eiffel's company, and several hundred workers assembled the frame in about two years.

History

When it was finished in 1889, the Eiffel Tower became the tallest structure humans had ever built, and it kept that title for 41 years until New York's Chrysler Building was completed in 1930. It was only meant to stand for a short time, and it was nearly taken down in 1909. The city kept it because it was useful as a radio station, and during World War I it helped catch enemy radio messages. In 1957 an aerial was added to the top, making it taller again.

Visiting today

Visitors can go up to three levels, and there are restaurants on the first two. You can take the stairs or a lift to the first and second levels; climbing from the ground to the second level means about 600 steps. The top level is usually reached only by lift, and its upper platform sits 276 metres above the ground. Up there you can also see the small private apartment Gustave Eiffel built for himself, where he once welcomed the inventor Thomas Edison.

On the globe

The model shows the tower's iron lattice rising from four wide legs and narrowing to a slim top in Paris. Zoom in to see how the legs curve together as the tower climbs.