Friday, March 22, 2013

Towering Over France


The Eiffel Tower is truly an amazing site! People instantly think of The Eiffel Tower when France is brought up into the conversation. It is the most iconic symbol in all of France. It has beautiful scenery and is admired all around the world. It was the world's tallest building until the American's built the Chrysler Building in New York. As of now it rises again to be taller than that of the Chrysler Building with the antenna added on.  The tower itself is at least 1050 feet tall! People in France can see it miles and miles away since it stuck out like a sore thumb.

File:Maurice koechlin pylone.jpg

The Eiffel Tower was first designed by Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier around 1884 to be used as a display for the 1889 Exposition Universelle. The first designs showed nothing like the final product we have now in France. It was really plain and dull until other architects and designers little by little added on to the design to make it so perfect. Building the actual tower took three years after the design was finalized until the new president for the engineering group was elected and determined how much they could actually spend on building. The tower itself took at least two years to complete! In 1887 they started on the base of it and slowly worked their way up to the top. Three hundred workers had worked on building this masterpiece! With all the safety precautions the head engineers did, only one person was unfortunately killed during the tower's building phase. I am quite relieved that not many casualties happened building this wonderful tower other wise it wouldn't have been worth it if too many people died working on the tower.

File:Construction of the Eiffel Tower.JPG
Stages of Construction 1887 through 1889

The tower has gone through some hard times and some happy times in history. Many famous people have visited the tower including Thomas Edison, Adolf Hitler, and a pilot who died trying to fly a plane under the Tower named Leon Collet. It also has been damaged a lot throughout time with the Second World War, and some natural disasters like fire and burning. To be honest, I am glad this tower has gone through so much because I believe this tower is more memorable with all this past events. 


Now here are some fun facts about the tower after all that boring history  and what not. The Eiffel Tower is the most popular paid site in the world with over 250,000,000 people visiting it since its completion. There are only two restaurants throughout the whole site. One is named Le 58 Tour Eiffel and Le Jules Verne. One is located on the first floor while the other one is settled on the second floor. Because of the well known reputation of The Eiffel Tower, many people around the world want a copy of the tower for their for their city as an attraction. People also take advantage of its reputation by showing it in the media for television shows or in video games. In 1980s, there were talks about moving the tower for another expo, but that proposal ultimately failed because of trust issues. It is said that this original tower has been reproduced in other cities little miniature ones over thirty times! The Eiffel Tower now has lost its name of tallest structure in the world due to more and more taller buildings are being built. This tower has impressed me a lot because of its history and of its beauty as an architecture. I really want to go visit it because I love seeing beautiful buildings and scenery and this place has both so I just have to see it with my own eyes.      

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