Eiffel Tower
EIFFEL TOWER
The Eiffel Tower was built in 1889 for the Universal Exposition celebrating the centenary of the French revolution. The Prince of
Wales, later King Edward VII of England opened the tower, which had been chosen from 700 proposals submitted in a design competition. (1)
The contractor was Gustave Eiffel & Cie
The engineers Maurice Koechlin & Emile Nouguier
The architect Stephen Sauvestre
Studies began 1884
Construction took place between 1887 - 1889 (2 years, 2 months and 5 days) 50 engineers and designers produced 5,300 blueprints
100 ironworkers produced the 18,083 individual parts to be assembled, whilst 121 actually worked on the construction site. (2)
The Foundations
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The workers began digging the foundations on January 26 1887. The first obstacle was to arise on receiving the initial bore samples, which raised questions about the stability of substrata. On one hand, the easterly and southern sample feet of the tower showed a typical mix of grey plastic clay resting on a solid foundation of chalk, whereas, the northern and westerly feet displayed compact sand resting on sloping gravel (due to the proximity of the River Seine). (3)
Using cylindrical pneumatic caissons with a diameter of seven feet,
Eiffel dug to a depth of fifty-three feet to find the good grey clay of Paris. If he sank these foundations sixteen feet deeper than the
East & Southern piers he would have solid footing. (Appendix 1)
Work began immediately, due to water seepage from the Seine, caissons were used - four per pier, sixteen in total. These caissons were fifty feet long, twenty feet wide and ten feet deep. The thirty four ton caissons were wedge shaped to form cutting edges with earth hoisted out of airlocks. 40,500 cubic yards of earth were removed from the four sites, it was only then, the foundations were actually laid.
Each pier would rest on cement and stone laid obliquely so that
The Eiffel Tower was built in 1889 for the Universal Exposition celebrating the centenary of the French revolution. The Prince of
Wales, later King Edward VII of England opened the tower, which had been chosen from 700 proposals submitted in a design competition. (1)
The contractor was Gustave Eiffel & Cie
The engineers Maurice Koechlin & Emile Nouguier
The architect Stephen Sauvestre
Studies began 1884
Construction took place between 1887 - 1889 (2 years, 2 months and 5 days) 50 engineers and designers produced 5,300 blueprints
100 ironworkers produced the 18,083 individual parts to be assembled, whilst 121 actually worked on the construction site. (2)
The Foundations
---------------
The workers began digging the foundations on January 26 1887. The first obstacle was to arise on receiving the initial bore samples, which raised questions about the stability of substrata. On one hand, the easterly and southern sample feet of the tower showed a typical mix of grey plastic clay resting on a solid foundation of chalk, whereas, the northern and westerly feet displayed compact sand resting on sloping gravel (due to the proximity of the River Seine). (3)
Using cylindrical pneumatic caissons with a diameter of seven feet,
Eiffel dug to a depth of fifty-three feet to find the good grey clay of Paris. If he sank these foundations sixteen feet deeper than the
East & Southern piers he would have solid footing. (Appendix 1)
Work began immediately, due to water seepage from the Seine, caissons were used - four per pier, sixteen in total. These caissons were fifty feet long, twenty feet wide and ten feet deep. The thirty four ton caissons were wedge shaped to form cutting edges with earth hoisted out of airlocks. 40,500 cubic yards of earth were removed from the four sites, it was only then, the foundations were actually laid.
Each pier would rest on cement and stone laid obliquely so that