Eiffel Tower
Construction of The Eiffel Tower
Introduction
The Eiffel Tower is a freestanding framework tower (lattice tower) located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It was named after it’s Chief Designer/Engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel and is the most-visited paid monument in the world with several millions ascending each year.
Why was the tower built?
The plan to build a tower 300 meters high was conceived as part of preparations for the World Exhibition Fair, which would be held in 1889, to mark the celebration of the French Revolution in 1789. Over 100 designs were submitted, and the World's Fair Committee selected the conception of a 300 meter open-lattice wrought iron tower. [5] The two chief engineers in Eiffel's company Emile Nouguier and Maurice Koechlin, had the idea for a very tall tower in June 1884. The design was a large pylon like tower with four columns of lattice work girders, separated at the base and coming together at the top, and joined to each other by more metal girders at regular intervals. The Paris based company had by this time mastered perfectly the principle of building bridge supports. The tower project was a bold extension of this principle up to a height of 300 metres - equivalent to the symbolic figure of 1000 feet. On September 18 1884 Eiffel registered a patent "for a new configuration allowing the construction of metal supports and pylons capable of exceeding a height of 1000 feet". [2]
Many Parisians protested against the tower including contemporary artists who feared the construction would be the advent of structures without 'individuality' and despite the many people who feared that this huge 'object' would not fit into the architecture of Paris. [1]
A petition letter was signed by many angry Parisians including very notable people of the age, Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier (French classical painter), Charles Gounod (French Composer), Charles Garnier (French Architect), Jean-Léon Gérôme (French Painter and
Introduction
The Eiffel Tower is a freestanding framework tower (lattice tower) located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It was named after it’s Chief Designer/Engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel and is the most-visited paid monument in the world with several millions ascending each year.
Why was the tower built?
The plan to build a tower 300 meters high was conceived as part of preparations for the World Exhibition Fair, which would be held in 1889, to mark the celebration of the French Revolution in 1789. Over 100 designs were submitted, and the World's Fair Committee selected the conception of a 300 meter open-lattice wrought iron tower. [5] The two chief engineers in Eiffel's company Emile Nouguier and Maurice Koechlin, had the idea for a very tall tower in June 1884. The design was a large pylon like tower with four columns of lattice work girders, separated at the base and coming together at the top, and joined to each other by more metal girders at regular intervals. The Paris based company had by this time mastered perfectly the principle of building bridge supports. The tower project was a bold extension of this principle up to a height of 300 metres - equivalent to the symbolic figure of 1000 feet. On September 18 1884 Eiffel registered a patent "for a new configuration allowing the construction of metal supports and pylons capable of exceeding a height of 1000 feet". [2]
Many Parisians protested against the tower including contemporary artists who feared the construction would be the advent of structures without 'individuality' and despite the many people who feared that this huge 'object' would not fit into the architecture of Paris. [1]
A petition letter was signed by many angry Parisians including very notable people of the age, Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier (French classical painter), Charles Gounod (French Composer), Charles Garnier (French Architect), Jean-Léon Gérôme (French Painter and