The history of the Eiffel Tower

The project provoked strong opposition before a single beam was raised. Artists, writers, and intellectuals denounced the tower as an affront to the elegance of Paris, fearing it would scar the city forever. The construction proceeded all the same, and the speed of the work astonished observers as the lattice of wrought iron rose month after month above the Champ de Mars. 

The Eiffel Tower was inaugurated on March 31, 1889. To celebrate, Gustave Eiffel climbed the 1,710 steps to the summit and planted the tricolor French flag at the top. At that moment the tower stood roughly 1,024 feet (312 meters) high, the tallest structure ever built. During the Universal Exposition, two million visitors made their way to admire the monument and the views it offered over the capital. 

When the project was approved, the agreement granted the tower a permit of only twenty years, after which it was to be dismantled. The extraordinary popularity of the monument changed everything. After the triumph of 1889 it became a symbol of French industrial power, and it drew crowds again at the 1900 Universal Exposition. 

Determined to prevent its destruction, Gustave Eiffel found a decisive argument by turning the summit into a station for scientific experiment, first for meteorology and aerodynamics, then for the new science of radio transmission. These uses justified its survival and secured its place in the city for good. 

Standing at its original height, the Eiffel Tower reigned as the tallest structure in the world for forty years, until 1929. Long after newer giants rose elsewhere, it remained the defining emblem of Paris, a monument that had outlived the doubts of its critics and the deadline of its own permit.