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The Eiffel Tower (French: La tour Eiffel) is the most recognizable landmark in Paris and is known worldwide as a symbol of France. Named after its designer, Gustave Eiffel, it is a premier tourist destination, with over 5.5 million visitors per year. The name Eiffel is pronounced "eye-full" in English, in French EfEl in X-SAMPA, but English speakers often adopt a German-sounding pronunciation ajf@l.
BackgroundThe 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. Three hundred workers joined together 18,038 pieces of puddled iron, using two and a half million rivets, in a structural design by Maurice Koechlin. The risk of accident was great, for unlike modern skyscrapers the tower is an open frame without any intermediate floors except the two platforms. Yet, because Eiffel took good care of his workers with movable stagings, guard-rails and screens, only one man died (during the installation of Otis Elevator's lifts) -- which was remarkable at the time. The tower is 300 meters (986 feet) tall, not including the 24-meter television antenna on top, and weighs 7000 tons. It was the world's tallest structure for forty years. According to the official website for the tower, the summit is reached by 1,665 steps and not, as popularly believed, by 1,792 steps (the same as the year of the First French Republic). Maintenance on the tower includes applying 50 tons of three graded tones of paint every 7 years to protect it from rust. On occasion, the color of the paint is changed. The tower is currently painted to a shade of brown. On the first floor, there are interactive consoles hosting a poll for the color to use for a 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. The tower was met with resistance from the public when it was first built, since 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. One of the great Hollywood movie clichés is that the view from a Parisian window always includes the Eiffel Tower. In reality, one can be a few hundred meters away from the tower and unable to see it. 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. EventsFather 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 1930, the Tower lost the title of the World's tallest structure when the Chrysler Building was completed in New York. From 1925 to 1936, illuminated signs for Citroen adorned three of the tower's four sides, making it the tallest billboard in the world at the time. When Adolf Hitler visited occupied Paris in 1940, the lift cables were cut by the French so that he would have to climb the 1,665 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. A Frenchman also scaled the tower during the German occupation to hang the French flag. 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. In the year 2000, flashing lights and four 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. Reproductions and imitationsSeveral reproductions/models of the Eiffel Tower (often smaller-scale) exist. In order of decreasing size:
The 72 namesMain article: The 72 names on the Eiffel Tower. On the tower, the 72 names of French scientists and engineers are ingraved in recognition of their contributions.This engraving was overpainted at the beginning of the 20th century and restored in 1986-1987 by SNTE ("Société Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel"), a company contracted to operate business related to the Tower (the Tower is owned by the state). See alsoAccess
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