March 31, marks the day when one of the wonders of the world, the Eiffel Tower was opened to the public. It has been 126 years to the day that the modern wonder of the world was opened to the public. While everyone knows where the Eiffel tower is, there are a handful of facts about the tower that not many people know about.
Here we are going to tell you about a few unknown facts about Eiffel tower.
Elevators: These days if people have to go up even one flight of stairs, they use an elevator, or an escalator, but back in the day when Eiffel tower was opened to the public, there were no elevators. The tower is 984 feet tall, and during the initial months one had climbed all the way. There are 1,710 steps from the bottom of the tower to the top. That is a lot of steps we are talking about. The lift was put only at the end of May 1889. It is also said that Gustave Eiffel had climbed all the 1,710 steps to plant the French flag.
Eiffel tower was a competition: The tower was part of a competition by the Journal Officiel to study the possibility of erecting an iron tower over Champ-de-Mars. There were 107 entries out of which the proposal by Eiffel, Koelchin and Sauvestre was chosen. The construction of the tower started in January 1887 and it took a total of two years to be built. About 200 workers were involved in the construction of the tower. The tower has around 18000 parts.
Controversial Project: The idea of an iron tower in the middle of Paris was quite revolting. Many people thought that an iron tower in the middle of the city would be an eye sore. There were many protests by artists, and they even wrote a letter to Eiffel. But Eiffel managed to fight off the protestors in his own letter. It stood the test of time and went on to become one of the most visited monuments in the world.
Science saved Eiffel Tower: Believe it or not, but the Eiffel tower was supposed to be destroyed after 20 years. The land on which the tower was built was leased out for a period of 20 years. The lease expired in 1909. It was supposed to get demolished, but it was saved by science. Eiffel encouraged scientific experiments in the tower. Eiffel tower still remains important to the world of science. Radio and television signals are still broadcasted from the tower. In addition to that, two new wind turbines were also installed in the tower, 400 feet above the ground. They power the tower’s first-floor commercial area and it also serves as a symbol for renewable energy.
