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The Eiffel Tower In 1884, the French president decided to launch the 1889 World's Fair in Paris to celebrate the Republic's 100th anniversary. The idea of building a tower 300 m high was begun by allowance of spectacular projects competition Gustave Eiffel bought the patent from his engineers and his team refined the project with the help of architect Stephone Sauvestre to compete by his Eiffel Tower. In mid 1886, a hastily prepared competition lasting 2 weeks (and drawing 107 entries) slected Eiffel's project negotiations could begin In January 1887, The contract to build the tower was awarded to Eiffel, who then had two and a half years to complete the world's tallest structure. Financial condition for the project awarded Eiffel a subsidy of 1,500,000 Francs (about 20% of total construction costs), plus the right to exploit the tower commercially for the duration of the world's fair. At the end of the fair, the tower would become the property of the city of Paris, but Eiffel would retain the right to exploit it for a 20 year period. The genial engineer sensed he was on to a good investment and he was proved correct. Three hundred metres tall, the Eiffel Tower was complete for the opening on 31 March 1889, and would become the fair's major attraction. It was destined to remain the worlds tallest construction for 42 years until 1930, when New York Chrysler Building topped it by a metre 18 m. Even after more than a century, Eiffels tower still draws record crowds-over 5 millon visitors per year, with a total of almost 200 million since its opening. The tower later became Paris transmitting antenna for the first television experiments in 1935. By the outbreak of the second World War, Paris would have nearly a thousand receivers and the tower had found a new function it still serves today. |
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