40 Impressive Curiosities of the Eiffel Tower | With Images

One of the buildings that most people identify in the world is the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It's an icon not only of the city of Paris but of the wonderful France . Raised for the 1889 Paris World Exposition, in 1909 it ran the risk of being demolished; fortunately, its dismantling was avoided and it remains at the Camp de Mars, on the banks of the Seine, as a symbol of the French capital. Come with us to know 40 Impressive Curiosities of the Eiffel Tower.

In the Eiffel Tower, many people have declared themselves to their partners. Paris is not only the Ville Lumière (the City of Light), but it is also one of the most romantic cities in the world and its most important monument is the main attraction for visitors. Surely the more than 14 million tourists who visit the capital of France each year, come one moment or another to be photographed at the foot of the famous Tower.

40 Curiosities of the Eiffel Tower

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Designed to be one of the attractions of the 1889 Paris Universal Exhibition, the Eiffel Tower was designed by engineers Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier with the collaboration of architect Stephen Sauvestre and carried out by French engineer Gustave Eiffel together with several collaborators.

40 Impressive Eiffel Tower Curiosities

The Eiffel Tower during the 1889 Universal Exhibition

2. The name I was going to receive initially was ". 300-metre tour" which means "300-meter tower."

3. The structure is made of iron, but rotten which means that it has been refined in such a way that almost all the sulphur and carbon have been eliminated, transforming it into wrought iron.

4. The Eiffel Tower received many criticisms from contemporary artists and writers who said of it, among other things, that it was: "a solitary suppository," "a hollow candelabra," "a tragic lamppost," or "the skeleton of a bell tower.

5. One of the curiosities of the Eiffel Tower is to be the most visited payment monument in the world, receiving annually more than 7 million tourists.

6. The height of the Eiffel Tower is 300 meters, but the upper antenna makes it reach 324 meters.

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7. For 41 years it was the tallest structure in the world, but in 1930 it was surpassed by the Chrysler Building of the New York City .

8. Engraved in the Tower are the names of seventy-two scientists, mathematicians and engineers, curiously, almost all are French.

9. In 1909 and due to the fall in ticket sales that had been occurring since 1901 and the end of the concession, there was talk of dismantling the Tower, which finally did not take place.

10. One of the things that kept the Eiffel Tower in place was its use for communications as a base for antennas. The first simply for hertzian waves and currently, among other uses, for DTT.

11. In 1912 a man concerned about air accidents made a prototype of a parachute and tested it from the Tower. Unfortunately, Franz Reichelt died in the attempt crashed into the ground. You can read the whole story here: The man who invented the parachute and died trying it.

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Tailor Franz Reichelt before jumping with his parachute

12. One of the problems in a construction of this magnitude is the wind. The curvature of the uprights was determined mathematically so that their resistance was the best possible against the effects of the wind.

13. One of the curiosities of the Eiffel Tower is that it is composed of 18,038 pieces that were designed and calculated to the millimeter.

14. It took 21 months to assemble the legs of the Eiffel Tower.

15. The 4 legs rest on concrete foundations which rest on a bed of compact gravel several metres below ground level.

16. Between 150 and 300 workers and 50 engineers and designers worked on the site.

17. The Eiffel Tower has approximately 2.5 million rivets and is built with 7,300 tons of iron.

18. At the time it was considered a feat the time it took to lift it: 2 years, 2 months and five days. Even today it is astonishing when one thinks of the precarious media of the time.

19. Another one of the curiosities of the Eiffel Tower is that it offers on the first floor a special tour for children between 6 and 10 years old that is made following panels and posters guided by an illustrated character called Gus who resembles the engineer Eiffel.

20. On this first floor you can enjoy an exciting vacuum experience as you walk on its transparent floor with glazed handrails 57 meters from the floor.

21. There was also a fragment of a little more than 4 meters of the helical staircase that Eiffel used to climb from the second floor to his studio at the top.

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Fragment of the original spiral staircase by Gustav Eiffel

22. The spiral staircase was dismantled in 1983 and twenty spans were sold at an international auction.

23. From the second floor you can see most of the great monuments of Paris and it also has a Michelin-starred restaurant, the Jules Verne.

24. At the top you can walk through the covered and uncovered area and visit the secret study by engineer Eiffel .

25. In this apartment, which also served as his office, Eiffel received his daughter Janine every Thursday, who had fragile health, so that she could enjoy a freer and purer air.

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26. Today, the apartment/office that originally had more than 100 meters has been reduced to a small space as the rest has been devoted to technical facilities that include a small apartment with two beds, a mini bathroom and a small kitchen for employees.

27. Due to the terrorist threat, access to the feet of the Eiffel Tower is controlled by the security services. There are two entrances located in the Allées Refuznik and Paulhan.

28. In March 2018 work began on remodelling the atrium and the space around the Tower. In November, the gardens of the perimeter were inaugurated, which are crossed from the security controls to access the atrium.

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29. The perimeter gardens are within the protected enclosure, access is free and the view from the first platform of the Tower is spectacular.

30. A large glass wall by Austrian architect Dietmar Feichtinger has also been installed, allowing the visitor to regain the perspective from the Mars Field to Trocadero while protecting both visitors and employees.

31. On the night of 14 July, the fireworks organised by the Parisian town hall to celebrate the French National Day are launched from the Eiffel Tower.

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32. For some years now, a race to climb to the top of the Eiffel Tower has been held when spring arrives. In the 2018 edition, 129 runners climbed the 1,665 steps and 324 metres of the Eiffel Tower.

33. Since its inauguration, approximately 370 people have lost their lives in the Tower due to suicides, accidents or unsuccessful bets.

34. Legend has it that when Hitler visited Paris in June 1940 he wanted to climb the Eiffel Tower, but someone had cut the cables of the elevators to make him walk up the 1665 steps to the top, the visit was annulled and was only photographed from the Trocadero. Throughout the German occupation the Tower elevators did not work.

35. One of the most notable scams in history was the Eiffel Tower. In 1909, the Czech Vistor Lustig, posing as a civil servant, twice sold the Tower to scrap dealers on the grounds that it was to be scrapped.

36. 20,000 light bulbs illuminate the Eiffel Tower from sunset to 1am. These bulbs flicker for the first 5 minutes of each hour while illuminated.

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37. Another one of the curiosities of the Eiffel Tower is that its illumination changes color on certain occasions.

38. In the city of Tokyo there is a communications tower built in imitation of the Eiffel Tower 78 years later. It's known as " The Tower of Tokyo "and it's 9 meters longer than the original.

39. It is not the only Eiffel Tower you can see in the world, there are more than 30 made to his image. One of the most famous is in Las Vegas and is the icon of one of the most popular hotels: the Hotel Paris.

40. As the last of these curiosities of the Eiffel Tower a note about your builder. When the work was completed in March 1889, the engineer Gustave Eiffel received the highest decoration from the French State, the Legion of Honour, on the platform at the top of the Tower.

Other curiosities of famous monuments

If you are interested in knowing the secrets of different cities in the world you can discover with us Curiosities of New York , Curiosities of London , Curiosities of Tokyo o Curiosities of Buenos Aires Among other cities of Europe, Asia or America or to know directly those of some of its most famous monuments:

  • Curiosities of Big Ben
  • Curiosities of the Holy Family

As you can see, a monument as interesting as the Eiffel Tower in Paris hides many secrets to discover. What did you think of our selection of curiosities of the Eiffel Tower Do you know any that we have not taken into account? Tell us and we can expand this list of curiosities.


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