Interesting Facts about Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower, one of the most famous monuments of the world, is an iron tower in Paris. It has been built on the Champ de Mars, beside the Seine River. It took 2 years, 2 months, and 5 days to build this huge tower, which was completed in 1889. Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, the same person who built the internal frame of the Statue of Liberty, was the main architect of the tower and it has been named after him only. The tower is beautifully illuminated at night, for which it consumes 7.8 million kWh per year. In order to know some more fun and interesting facts about Eiffel Tower, go through the following lines.

  

Fun and Interesting Facts about Eiffel Tower:

• Eiffel Tower has been named after its designer, engineer Gustave Eiffel.
• Eiffel Tower is the tallest building in Paris.
• The height of Eiffel Tower, including its 24 m (79 ft) antenna, is 324 m.
• The height of Eiffel Tower is equivalent to 81 levels in a conventional building.
• The construction work of Eiffel Tower started on January 26, 1887 and was completed on March 31, 1889.
• Till 1930, Eiffel Tower was the tallest building in the whole world.
• The metal structure of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tonnes, while the entire structure, including non-metal parts, weighs around 10,100 tonnes.
• Fifty engineers and designers produced 5,300 drawings, and over 100 workers built more than 18,000 different parts of the tower in a workshop.
• Eiffel Tower was inaugurated on March 31, 1889.
• 2,500,000 rivets and 18,038 iron parts make up the Eiffel Tower.
• In 1889, the cost of construction of the Eiffel Tower was around 7,799,401.31 French gold francs.
• The four pillars of the Eiffel Tower stand in a square that measures 125 meters on each side.
• The 1^st floor of Eiffel Tower stands at a height of 57 m, while the 2^nd and 3^rd floor are 115 m and 276 m high, respectively.
• One can visit the different floors of the monument via elevators.
• Strong winds can sway Eiffel Tower slightly. During the storm of 1999, it moved approximately 13 centimeters from its initial position.
• Eiffel Tower hosted the first French radiophonic experiments and also played a crucial role in the inception of French television.
• Eiffel Tower is home to dozens of antennas, of all sorts, including a television mast that is 324 meters high.
• Le Figaro sets up a printing press on the second floor of Eiffel Tower in 1889. Till date, the paper is published on site and visitors who buy it can have their name inscribed on their copy.
• Eiffel Tower is painted every 7 years. It gets covered in 3 shades of brown, with the darkest one at the bottom.
• The 19^th painting of Eiffel Tower is scheduled to begin in autumn 2008
• Approximately 60 tons of paint and a time period of 15 to 18 months is required to paint the Eiffel Tower.
• On a clear day, one can see up to 42 miles away, from the top of Eiffel Tower.
• The base of Eiffel Tower is spread over an area of 100 square meters.
• The Eiffel Tower is open 365 days a year.
• 4 tons of dusters & cleaning cloths, 10,000 doses of cleaning items, 400 liters of detergents and 25,000 bin bags are needed to clean Eiffel Tower.
• Eiffel Tower has two restaurants, on the first and second platforms, named Altitude and Jules Verne.
• Till 2003, over 200 million people had visited the Eiffel Tower, since its inception.
• Eiffel Tower was initially intended to be dismantled and sold as scrap 20 years after its construction, but this never happened.
• The sides of Eiffel Tower, just beneath the first platform, have been affixed with named of 72 prominent French scientists and famous personalities.
• Wheelchair-bound people can visit the Eiffel Tower up to the second level, using the elevator.