The Eiffel Tower

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The Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower in Paris, France is a well known landmark and tourist attraction.
Gustave Eiffel was born on the 15th December 1832 in Dijon France. He became an engineer and builder. He was extremely talented. Having been involved in many building and engineering works including the inside of the statue of Liberty.
He designed the 300 metre high tower and began work to construct it in 1887. It took 5 months just to do the foundations. But in those days they only had basic tools no machines to do the work for them. Building the tower proved problematic at times. Some of the pillars had to have compressed air in the foundations. The steel caissons were under water. It took 18,038 iron parts to create the tower together with 2,500,000 rivets.
This year the tower is 120 years - old and is being re - painted for only the 17th time in it's history. It will take 47,421 litres of paint. The tower is cleaned regularly to keep it looking good. To get to the summit you would need to climb 1,792 steps. Putting in the lifts was a whole new idea and quite incredible for the period. Amazingly some of the lifts that were put in very early on are still going.
The Eiffel Tower was built for a universal exhibition. In 1889 it was 100 years since the French revolution. The tower was due to be taken down after 20 years but has remained ever since. Like any structure it had it's critics when it first went up. They didn't like the design or what it did to the Paris skyline.
In 1860 Gustave Eiffel married Marie Gaudelet and they had 5 children. In 1867 he started his own company. He died on the 27th December 1923.

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