France Tourist Attractions - Eiffel Tower

Reproductions and imitations

Several reproductions of the Eiffel Tower (often smaller-scale) are found in:

Tokyo, Japan called the Tokyo Tower (13 meters higher than the original, scale 1.04:1) 

Blackpool, England - Blackpool Tower 158 meters (519 feet) tall is not quite a free-standing structure; it stands above the Tower Circus complex, where the four "legs" can be seen.

Guatemala City, Guatemala - Torre del Reformador, 75 meters tall 

Paradise, Nevada, near Las Vegas, USA (scale 1:2) 

Prague, Czech Republic (scale 1:5), Petrinska rozhledna, built in 1891

Shenzhen, China (scale 1:3)

Slobozia, Romania, 54 meters tall 

King's Island theme park, Ohio (scale 1:3) 

An imitation in front of Paris Hotel, Las Vegas, 165 meters (540 feet) high (scale 1:2). 

Wembley Park, London - Watkins' Tower 
Woodwards Building,

Vancouver, Canada. A small reproduction on the roof of the building is topped by a signature neon "W". This building is now being converted into social housing. 

Paramount Park's Kings Dominion, Virginia. A 84 m (275-ft) reproduction is available for the amusement of visitors. (scale 1:3.59) 

Official site of the Eiffel Tower 

Structurae: Eiffel Tower 

Tour Eiffel – Eiffel Tower : Pictures 

Panoramic photo of the Eiffel Tower

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Practical Information
for the Eiffel Tower

Métro : Ecole Militaire, Trocadéro

Tel : 01 44 11 23 33

Information : relationclient@toureiffel.fr

Hours :
1 Jan to 13 June 
Lift : 09h30 to 23h00 
Stairs : 9h30 to 18h30 

14 June to 30 Aug 
Lift : 09h30 to 24h00 
Stairs : 9h30 to 24h00 

31 Aug to 31 Dec
Lift : 09h30 to 23h00 
Stairs : 9h30 to 18h30

Entry fee : (approx prices due to possible changes)
Adults 
Lift : 1st level : 3,70 € / 2nd level : 7,00 € / top : 10,20 € 
Stairs : 3,30 € to 2nd level 
Children -12 years 
Lift : 1st level : 2,30 € / 2nd level : 3,90 € /top : 5,50 € 
Stairs : 3,30 €  to 2nd level
Children  -3 years : free

Credits : This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Eiffel Tower".

Most visited
France Tourist Attractions

Named after its designer, Gustave Eiffel, the tower is a premier tourist destination, with over 5.5 million visitors per year.

(The name Eiffel is pronounced in French EfEl eefel, but English speakers often adopt a German-sounding pronunciation ajfEl.)

Background

The structure was built from 1887 to 1889 as the entrance arch for the Exposition Universelle (1889), a World's fair marking the centennial celebration of the French revolution. 

It was inaugurated on March 31, 1889, and opened on May 6. 300 workers joined together 18,038 pieces of puddled iron, using two and a half million rivets.

Considering the safety standards in place at the time, it is remarkable that only one worker died in the construction of the tower (during the installation of Otis Elevator's lifts).

The tower is 300 metres (986 feet) tall, not including the 20-meter television antenna on top, and weighs over 10,000 tons (over 21,000,000 pounds). 

It was the tallest structure in the world for forty years. The summit is reached by 1,792 steps - the same as the year of the First French Republic.

Maintenance on the tower includes 50 tons of three graded tones of paint every 7 years within also the color is changed, actually the color of the tower is brown and on the first floor there are interactive consoles hosting a poll for the color to choose in the future session of painting.

Depending on the ambient temperature, the top of the Eiffel Tower will shift away from the sun by eight centimetres because of expansion of the sun-warmed metal.

Perhaps predictably, the tower met with resistance from the public when it was first built, many thought it would be an eyesore. Today it is widely considered to be one of the most striking pieces of architectural art in the world.

View of Seine, Trocadero and
 Palais de Chaillot

One of the great Hollywood movie clichés is that the view from a Parisian window always includes the Eiffel Tower.

Originally, Eiffel had a permit to leave the tower standing for 20 years, more than recouping his expenses, but as it proved valuable for communication purposes, it was allowed to stay after the end of the permit.

Events

On January 12, 1908, the first long-distance radio message was sent from the tower.

Father Theodor Wulf in 1910 took observations of radiant energy radiation at the top and bottom of the Eiffel Tower, discovering more than was expected at the top, and thereby detecting what are today known as cosmic rays.

In 1925, the con artist Victor Lustig twice "sold" the Eiffel Tower for scrap.

In 1929, the Tower lost the title of the World's tallest structure when the Chrysler Building was completed in New York.

When Adolf Hitler visited occupied Paris in 1940, the lift cables were cut by the French so that he would have to climb the 1792 steps to the summit - the part to repair them was allegedly impossible to obtain because of the war, though it was working again within hours of the departure of the Nazis. He chose to stay on the ground.

On January 3, 1956 a fire damaged the top of the tower.

In 1959 the present radio antenna was added to the top.

In the 1980s an old restaurant and its supporting iron scaffolding midway up the tower was dismantled; this was purchased and reconstructed in New Orleans, Louisiana, originally as the Tour Eiffel Restaurant, more recently known as the Red Room.

View of Champs de Mars and Montparnasse Tower

In the year 2000, flashing lights and several high-power searchlights were installed on the tower. Since then the light show has become a nightly event. The searchlights on top of the tower make it a beacon in Paris' night sky.

The tower received its 200,000,000th guest on November 28, 2002.

At 19:20 on July 22, 2003, a fire occurred at the top of the tower in the broadcasting equipment room. The entire tower was evacuated; the fire was extinguished after forty minutes, and there were no reports of injuries.