Now it is already a symbol installed in one of the most emblematic cities in Europe, but on a day like today, 137 years ago, construction began on the Eiffel Towerdesigned to last a shorter time.
As revealed by historians, on January 28, 1887, construction began in Paris on the Eiffel Tower. This architectural work It had been designed to be the main attraction of the Universal Exposition that would take place in the French capital in 1889..
However, the Eiffel Tower went from being a temporary proposal to becoming a symbol of tourism and the glamor French. It is 300 meters high, which made it the tallest structure in the world until 1930 when it was overshadowed by the Chrysler Building in New York.
The funny thing is that this building It was made so that it would only last 20 years in the French capital. The project of the French businessman Gustave Eiffel together with the engineers Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier won out of a total of 107 proposals.
The work was carried out within the framework of the Universal Exhibition of 1889, the first centenary of the French Revolution. It received numerous criticisms and was the subject of several protests during its construction.
“We will see how the shadow of this hateful bolted iron column stretches over the city,” some said. The French newspaper Le Temps published, in 1887, a letter in which artists, architects and personalities questioned the work and called it “useless and monstrous”.
The truth of the work
The creator of the Eiffel Tower I had plans. If the work was useful to science, “this would protect it from its enemies and extend its useful life.” Therefore, from the beginning it was used as a laboratory for scientific measurements and experiments.
Gustave Eiffel himself set up an office on the third floor for astronomical observations. “For my part, I believe that the Tower will have its own beauty,” Gustave Eiffel wrote in a letter.
