Eiffel Tower meeting

At the Universal Exhibition celebrating the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution, a major competition was organized. 

The purpose of the competition is to study the possibility of «raising on the Champ de Mars a square-based iron tower of 125 meters wide and 300 meters high». 107 projects are presented, Gustave Eiffel’s project was selected. 

The project originally planned has not been fully respected. The top had to have a bulb shape and the whole monument had to have various ornaments. A simplified version will finally be decided. 

The elements of the Tower are drawn a tenth of a millimeter and assembled in 5-metre pieces in the buildings in Levallois-Perret. 

For assembling, temporary bolts are used. Then they are replaced one by one by hot-laid rivets. The installation of these rivets required 4 men (per rivet). The Tower has more than 1 million rivets. 

The construction of the Eiffel Tower began in January 1887 and has been completed 2 years, 2 months and 5 days later, on March 31, 1889. Thanks to this construction, Gustave Eiffel was decorated with the Legion of Honor. This ceremony took place on the platform of the Tower summit. 

130 years later, the Eiffel Tower became the France symbol and the showcase of Paris. It now welcomes about 7 million visitors per year. It is therefore the world’s most visited entrance-paying monument.

To facilitate its access, ERMHES has installed in 2018 two platform lifts at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower.