Did everyone like the Eiffel Tower when it was first built?

People in Paris actually hated it at first When the Eiffel Tower was built, many eminent intellectuals of the day (including famous French author Guy de Maupassant) protested vehemently against it, calling it 'a gigantic black smokestack' that would ruin the beauty of Paris.



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8. People in Paris actually hated it at first. When the Eiffel Tower was built, many eminent intellectuals of the day (including famous French author Guy de Maupassant) protested vehemently against it, calling it 'a gigantic black smokestack' that would ruin the beauty of Paris.

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Parisians originally hated the Eiffel Tower. Newspapers received angry letters that said the tower didn't fit into the feel of the city and there was a team of artists that rejected the plan from the get-go.

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Newspapers received angry letters that said the tower didn't fit into the feel of the city and there was a team of artists that rejected the plan from the get-go. One apocryphal story says that novelist Guy de Maupassant said he hated the tower, but ate lunch at its restaurant every day.

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But though Eiffel's tower planned to set records, it wasn't without controversy. The building was radically industrial, and that chafed against the sensibilities of more refined Parisians.

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They said it looked like a hideous factory chimney, it was going to be 1,000 feet tall, way taller than anything else in Paris, and it would be there for 20 years. People also feared it might collapse because railroad bridges had collapsed.

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Like all towers, it allows us to see and to be seen, with a spectacular ascent, a unique panoramic view of Paris, and a glittering beacon in the skies of the Capital. The Tower also represents the magic of light. Its lighting, its sparkling lights, and its beacon shine and inspire dreams every evening.

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The Eiffel Tower was supposed to be destroyed only 20 years after its construction. To remedy the situation, Gustave Eiffel had the ingenious idea of crediting it with a scientific purpose – the Tower was saved!

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Here's another interesting fact about the Eiffel Tower: Its height changes with the seasons. If you're visiting in summer, the tower is actually taller as the iron structure expands up to 7 inches when temperatures are as high as 104°F. In winter, the cold weather causes the tower to shrink up to 6 inches.

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Once completed, the tower became the gateway to the 1889 World's Fair. It attracted nearly 2 million visitors and was the tallest building in the world at the time. For many, it offered the first aerial view of Paris. The top hid Gustave Eiffel's office, in which he welcomed personalities throughout the 6-month event.

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However, the lights on the Eiffel Tower were installed in 1985, by Pierre Bideau, meaning that any photo or video that shows the monument at a time when the lights are visible (ie, at night) is a violation of copyright law.

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The Eiffel Tower is not considered one of the new Seven Wonders of the World. It was a finalist in the contest held by the New 7 Wonders Foundation, however, it was not selected.

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Gustave Eiffel Personally Funded Most of the Tower However, to attract investors, Eiffel arranged to keep the tower up for twenty years, during which time he could take all the profits from entry fees and restaurant concessions. Eiffel had all of his debts paid off within a mere six months!

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It is made of lattice-shaped wrought iron with 20,000 lights. The Eiffel Tower was built for $1.5M in 1889. If we inflation adjust this original cost using CPI, we get $44M. According to a 2012 study by the Chamber of Commerce of Monza and Brianza in northern Italy, it is worth $510 billion.

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Financing of the Eiffel Tower: the Franco-Egyptian Bank enters the scene. In 1888, the cost of building the Eiffel Tower was estimated at 6.5 million francs, with public authorities only being able to cover 1.5 million francs of this cost. Eiffel therefore approached banks to raise the additional 5 million francs.

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In 1923, Pierre Labric cycled down the first level of Eiffel Tower. Pierre Labric was a journalist with the popular Parisian newspaper Petit Parisien. If there's one place that is part of everyone's bucket list, it's the Eiffel Tower in the French capital city, Paris.

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