The Eiffel  Tower

Alexandre Gustave Eiffel is most famous for the eyecatching tower he constructed in Paris for the Exposition Universelle of 1889. But the tower is , in fact a masterpiece that came relatively late in his long life. It hs been described as a monument to 19th- century engineering skill. It was almost torn down on  several occasions, until the advent of radio and television made it permanently important as a transmission tower. For many years, it was the tallest man-made structure on the planet. The current height of the tower is 320.75 meters (1052 feet), which is about the equivalent of a 106-story building. It is still the tallest structure in Paris by a very wide margin. In photographs, it doesn’t look as big as it actually is, because there is nothing nearby with  which to compare it. The first visit to the tower in person is usually a surprise.

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The Eiffel Tower is located on the Left Bank of the Seine river, at the northwestern  extreme of the Parc du Champ de Mars, a park in front of the École Militaire that used  to be a military parade ground (whence the name). The four pillars supporting the tower are aligned to the points of the compass, and the base covers roughly the area of two (American) football fields.

The tower is 320.75 meters (1069 feet) tall today, which is about 106 stories.  The levels accessible to the public are at heights of 57.63 meters (189 feet), or 19 stories; 115.73 meters (380 feet), or 38 stories; and 273 meters (896 feet), or 89 stories. From the summit, you can see as far away as Chartres (to the southwest) on a clear day. It is by far the highest structure in Paris; contrary to what some claim, the Montparnasse Tower, while it is the highest skyscraper in Europe, is still only a little over half the height of the Eiffel Tower.

The tower is built of puddled iron (very pure structural iron), and weights 7300 metric tons.It is thus extremely light—the tower actually weighs roughly the same as the air that surrounds it.

The tower is such an important French institution today that it is pictured on the new French 200-franc bank note, next to a portrait of Gustave Eiffel himself.
 

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