49 Fun Facts About Eiffel Tower

In which city does the Eiffel Tower stand?

The Eiffel Tower stands in Paris, rising from the Champ de Mars, a park on the Left Bank of the Seine in the 7th arrondissement.

How many pillars support the Eiffel Tower at its base?

The Eiffel Tower stands on four pillars, one at each corner of a square base about 125 metres on a side; they are named after the compass points.

The tower was built as the centrepiece of which event?

It was the entrance arch and centrepiece of the 1889 World's Fair (Exposition Universelle), held to mark the centenary of the French Revolution; the tower was meant to be temporary.

By what affectionate nickname is the tower known in France?

The French call the tower La dame de fer, 'The Iron Lady', after the roughly 7,300 tonnes of wrought iron it is built from.

Roughly how tall did the Eiffel Tower become after its 2022 aerial extension?

A new digital-radio aerial fitted in March 2022 raised the Eiffel Tower from 324 to 330 metres, roughly the height of an 81-storey building.

How many levels of the tower are open to visitors?

Three levels are open to visitors: the first and second floors, which have restaurants, and the summit, which has a champagne bar.

How many steps does it take to climb from the ground to the second level?

About 600 is the nearest figure: the official count is 674 steps from the ground to the second level; the stairs above it are closed to visitors.

Which structure did the Eiffel Tower overtake to become the world's tallest human-made structure?

The Washington Monument, 169 metres tall, had been the world's tallest structure since 1884; the 300-metre Eiffel Tower surpassed it in 1889 and held the title for 41 years.

Which New York skyscraper took the world's-tallest-structure title from the Eiffel Tower in 1930?

The Chrysler Building, completed in 1930 at 319 metres, was the first structure to top the Eiffel Tower, ending its 41-year reign as the world's tallest.

Which two engineers at Eiffel's company are credited with the tower's design?

The design came from Koechlin and Nouguier: Maurice Koechlin sketched the 300-metre 'great pylon' in May 1884 with fellow senior engineer Émile Nouguier, and Eiffel patented it with them that September.

What did architect Stephen Sauvestre add to the engineers' original design?

The arches are purely ornamental; they made the tower look more substantial and gave the fair a grand entrance.

How many rivets hold the tower's 18,038 iron pieces together?

About 2.5 million rivets join the 18,038 iron pieces, which were made at Eiffel's factory in Levallois-Perret and carted to the site; any part that did not fit was sent back, never altered on site.

How many workers died during the tower's construction?

Only one worker died in two years of building, an Italian who fell while off duty on a Sunday; Eiffel's movable gangways, guardrails and screens made the 300-man site unusually safe for its era.

Who led the 'Committee of Three Hundred' of artists protesting the tower?

Charles Garnier, architect of the Paris Opera, led the February 1887 'Protest against the Tower of Monsieur Eiffel'; the committee had one member for each metre of the planned 300-metre height.

Which writer supposedly lunched in the tower's restaurant daily because it was the one place he couldn't see it?

Guy de Maupassant, a signatory of the 1887 artists' protest against the 'useless and monstrous' tower, is said to have eaten at its restaurant daily because it was the one spot in Paris where he could not see it.

Roughly how long did Eiffel's 31 March 1889 climb to the top with officials take?

The climb took over an hour because the lifts were not yet working and Eiffel stopped often to explain features; at the top he raised a Tricolour to a 25-gun salute.

How many visitors climbed the 1,710 steps to the top before the lifts started running in May 1889?

Nearly 30,000 people climbed to the top on foot before the lifts entered service on 26 May 1889; by the end of the fair almost 1.9 million had visited, paying 5 francs for the summit.

Which inventor visited Eiffel's private apartment at the top and gave him a phonograph?

Thomas Edison visited Eiffel's top-floor apartment in September 1889 and presented him with a phonograph; Sarah Bernhardt and Buffalo Bill Cody, whose Wild West show played at the fair, also came that year.

The tower was originally due to be dismantled in which year?

The tower was due to come down in 1909, when the concession Eiffel won in 1887 ran out and ownership passed to the City of Paris.

What saved the tower from its planned demolition?

Its value for radio telegraphy saved it: the army ran a wireless station there from 1903, and in 1914 its transmitter jammed German communications before the First Battle of the Marne.

The names of how many French scientists and engineers are engraved on the tower?

The 72 names, engraved in gilt letters beneath the first-floor balcony, were Eiffel's 'invocation of science' in reply to the artists' protest; painted over early in the 1900s, they were restored in 1986–87.

What was Austrian tailor Franz Reichelt testing when he died jumping from the first level in 1912?

Franz Reichelt was testing a parachute suit of his own making; it failed to open when he jumped from the 57-metre first level on 4 February 1912, and newsreel cameras filmed the fatal fall.

A message intercepted by the tower's wireless station in 1917 helped convict which famous spy?

Mata Hari was named in coded messages between Berlin and the German attaché in Madrid, intercepted at the tower, that referred to agent H-21; the dancer was shot by firing squad in October 1917.

Which car maker's illuminated name covered three sides of the tower from 1925 to 1934?

André Citroën rented the tower for a giant illuminated 'CITROËN' sign of some 250,000 bulbs on three faces from 1925 to 1934, then the tallest advertising space in the world.

Which con artist 'sold' the tower for scrap metal in 1925?

Victor Lustig posed as a Posts and Telegraphs official inviting scrap dealers to bid for the tower's metal; his victim, André Poisson, was too embarrassed to go to the police, and a second attempt failed.

What did the French do to the tower's lifts when Germany occupied Paris in 1940?

The French cut the cables of the lifts so the occupiers would have to climb; they were not repaired until 1946, and the swastika flag German soldiers hoisted on foot blew away within hours.

Which general did Hitler order to demolish the tower along with the rest of Paris in 1944?

Dietrich von Choltitz, the military governor of Paris, ignored Hitler's order to destroy the tower and the city; a Tricolour flew from the top again by 25 August 1944.

A communications mast in which Japanese city, inspired by the Eiffel design, became the world's tallest tower in 1958?

Tokyo Tower, a red-and-white lattice homage opened in 1958, reached 333 metres, topping the 320-metre Eiffel Tower of the time.

Which Canadian city reportedly negotiated to borrow the tower for its 1967 world's fair?

Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau reportedly struck a secret deal with Charles de Gaulle to move the tower to Expo 67; the company operating the tower is said to have vetoed it.

What colour was the tower originally painted?

It was painted reddish brown for its 1889 opening, after a Venetian-red anti-rust coat during construction; later schemes included yellow-brown from 1907 and, from 1968, the three-shade 'Eiffel Tower Brown'.

Why is the tower painted in three progressively different shades?

The shades are graded to complement the sky: darker at the base and lighter at the top, so the colour reads evenly against the Paris sky; the tower has been fully repainted 19 times since 1889.

Roughly how much paint goes on the tower each time it is repainted?

Each repainting uses about 60 tonnes of paint, applied by hand by a team of around 25 painters; the tower is repainted roughly every seven years.

How far can the top of the tower shift away from the sun on a hot day?

Sun heats one side so its metal expands, tilting the top up to 18 cm away from the sun; wind, by contrast, sways the tower only a few centimetres.

The fine-dining restaurant on the tower's second level is named after which writer?

Le Jules Verne, named after the French science-fiction author, opened on the second level in 1983; Alain Ducasse ran it from 2007, and Frédéric Anton took it over in 2019.

What seasonal attraction has appeared on the first level since 2004?

An ice rink has been set up on the first level each winter since 2004; the 2014 refurbishment of that floor added a glass-floored section.

For how long does the tower sparkle each hour after dark?

It sparkles for five minutes at the top of each hour after dark; the 20,000 flashing bulbs were installed for the 2000 millennium celebrations, and the operating company claims the display as a copyrighted work.

How many visitors had the tower welcomed by November 2002?

The tower passed 200 million visitors on 28 November 2002; it drew around seven million people a year through the 2000s and 2010s, more than any other paid-entry monument in the world.

Which English seaside town built its own Eiffel-inspired tower after its mayor visited the 1889 fair?

Blackpool Tower opened in May 1894 after Mayor John Bickerstaffe saw the Eiffel Tower at the 1889 fair; at 158 metres it is about half the height of the Paris original.

Which landmark faces the tower directly across the Seine?

The Palais de Chaillot, built for the 1937 Exposition on the Trocadéro hill, faces the tower across the Pont d'Iéna and the Seine.

Which American firm built the original curved lifts to the second level when no French firm bid?

The fair's charter banned foreign material, so the deadline was extended, but the contract still went to Otis in July 1887.

In which year did the tower's golden illumination by lighting engineer Pierre Bideau debut?

Pierre Bideau's golden lighting, hundreds of sodium lamps set inside the structure, was switched on on 31 December 1985, replacing floodlights aimed at the tower from outside.

Who flew a Beechcraft Bonanza under the tower on 31 March 1984?

American pilot Robert Moriarty flew his Beechcraft Bonanza between the tower's legs on 31 March 1984; Leon Collet had died attempting the feat in 1926 when his plane snagged a radio aerial.

Which aviator won 100,000 francs in 1901 for flying an airship from Saint-Cloud around the tower and back?

Alberto Santos-Dumont won the Deutsch de la Meurthe prize on 19 October 1901, flying his No. 6 airship from Saint-Cloud round the tower and back in under thirty minutes.

In which year did the tower become part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site?

The tower was included in the 'Paris, Banks of the Seine' World Heritage listing of 1991; France had declared it a historical monument in 1964.

Which culture minister declared the tower a historical monument in 1964?

André Malraux, the novelist who was de Gaulle's culture minister from 1959 to 1969, listed the tower as a monument historique in June 1964, 75 years after it opened.

What is the nearest Paris Metro station to the tower?

Bir-Hakeim on Metro line 6 is the closest Metro station, a short walk along the Seine; the RER C stop Champ de Mars–Tour Eiffel is nearer still.

How much of the tower's estimated 6.5-million-franc cost did the French state contribute?

The state put up 1.5 million francs, under a quarter of the estimated 6.5 million; Eiffel raised the rest himself in return for the tower's income for 20 years.

Which US city received a dismantled tower restaurant, reassembled there in the 1980s?

It was removed from the first level in 1981 to lighten the tower, shipped to New Orleans and reassembled on St. Charles Avenue near the Garden District as a restaurant and events hall.

Which bungee-jumping pioneer leapt from the top of the tower in 1987 and was arrested?

New Zealander A. J. Hackett jumped from the tower's top in June 1987 with a latex cord he had helped develop, was briefly arrested, and opened the world's first commercial bungee site at Kawarau Bridge in 1988.