by Jimmy

Created on: May 18, 2008   Last Updated: February 25, 2012

Gustave Eiffel was very productive as a "constructor" in nineteenth century France. A constructor is one who specialized in metal structural work, a new building material at the time. Eiffel, born in Dijon France 1832 graduated from the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in 1855. Afterwards he practiced his craft all over the Europe, the Dome of the Nice observatory, the Maria Pia Bridge spanning the Douro valley in Portugal, and The West Station in Pest Hungary, are a few notable mentions. Gathering knowledge on the way he was developing the techniques that would allow the construction of the Eiffel Tower to spring up, upwards of one thousand feet, (324 meters with antennas) high in two short years. Three hundred meters was considered the metric equivalent to one thousand feet.

Using metal exclusively in construction was new so there was a lot of room for innovation to develop building techniques. Eiffel discovered that with precise engineering you can produce all your parts for any structure off site, catalog them and ship them in the proper order and the construction process can be performed like a ballet. Eiffel pre-constructed bridges and shipped them as far away as Indochina where they were assembled and functioned as designed. The precision of his handy work is evident in The Statue of Liberty that Gustave Eiffel sent to The United States crated up and ready for her new home.

Despite a remarkable career, when Eiffel proposed his Tower for construction in down town Paris he was met with heavy resistance. The harshest critics was the artist who called the project a horrid skeleton, a corpse, and a "truly tragic street lamp," to quote just a few protesters. But Eiffel won out and Paris gained an incomparable icon. In later years, celebrated artists Le Douanier Rousseau, and Robert Delaunay, warmed up to the vision of "an artistic steel structure" and painted many canvases expressing their beloved embrace for the new icon.

The construction of the Eiffel Tower began in January 1887, with preparation for the concrete foundations. July of the same year the Tower began to reach up from the ground using the preassembled sections made of Puddle Iron. This is a fibrous quality obtained in iron by stirring before the pouring process, a nineteenth century strengthening process. These components were supplied by skilled crews who could work miles away, yet keep the tolerances tight for an exacting fit. Of the 2,500,000 rivets used to assemble the Tower, two thirds

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>