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hammered in at the factory at Levallois-Perret, on the outskirts of Paris. With small steam cranes on the tower itself, they raised up all the preassembled pieces like in a big erector set.

Just over two years later, on March 31 1889 the Eiffel Tower was finished, for the Universal Exhibition at the World's Fair in Paris that year, and it was a hit! Any critical clamoring disappeared as the tower was here to stay. Elevators hoist the first visitors to a heavenly view that year, and is still a must visit landmark to this day.

The Eiffel Tower has been much more than symbol of strength and beauty; it has been used as a radio antenna since 1898 when Eugene Ducretet experimented with the first radio signals from atop of the towering structure. By 1903 the French military realized the strategic advantage of the 1000 ft. tower and installed their own antenna and a radio station in 1906. Today scores of antenna are perched high over Paris beaming radio, television, and microwave signals to a public hungry for the newest technology.

Parisians also love to bathe their Tower in light! Using gaslight until 1900 when electric light entered the scene. Incandescent and neon, and special sodium lighting, the Eiffel Tower is still a choice location for experimenting with different lighting techniques. Many advertisers stretching the envelope of technology have used the Tower as a billboard. Citroen dominated the figure in the 1920's with their brightly lit name filling the second level of the Tower. Today artistry has been brought back to this iconic legend, using rich red lighting for the Chinese New Year 2004, and the Yellow and green tribute to the 2007 Rugby World Cup hosted by France. But any day is a good day for lighting Eiffel's Tower, and to accomplish that, they use 20,000 special bulbs installed by a crew of 25 climbers. They spent 5 months at a cost of 4.5 million euro's and they expect the lights to work for 10 years. Beauty has its costs!

The Eiffel Tower is a World Class landmark from a world class engineer. The Tower has proven itself to be as useful as it is a work of art; I offer a salute to Gustave for a job well done.

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