"Reaction [beta]"
The Eiffel Tower story 16 Jul 2007
Neatorama tells the story of The Eiffel Tower - and how many French citizens initally opposed it:
"When digging started on the foundation, more than 300 prominent Parisians signed a petition protesting the tower. They claimed that Eiffel's 'hallow candlestick' would 'disfigure and dishonor' the city...
"...A French mathematics professor predicted that when the structure passed the 748-foot mark, it would inevitable collapse; another 'expert' predicted that the tower's lightening rods would kill all the fish in the Seine.
"The Paris edition of the New York Herald claimed the tower was changing the weather; and the daily newspaper Le Matin ran a headline story claiming 'The Tower is Sinking.' 'If it has really begun to sink,' Le Matin pontificated, 'any further building should stop and sections already built should be demolished as quickly as possible.'"
Of course, by the time construction was complete, almost all of the critics had been won over - including prime minister Tirard, who had opposed the project at its inception, but awarded Eiffel the medal of the Legion of Honour after it was finished. And while many French citizens had initally vowed to stay away, the tower went on to recoup more than $1.4 million of its $1.6 million construction costs in the first six months after it opened. Another great example or why you should focus on what people do, rather than what they say.
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7 comments so far
steve 17 Jan 2008 08:14 PM
The Eiffel Tower
While everyone alive is aware of the Eiffel Tower, many are unaware that the
tower you see today is NOT the tower originally built in 1889. The Tower was
built in the years 1887 - 1889 for the Universal Exposition in Paris out
of18,000 pieces of iron. Those pieces were joined together with 2.5 million
rivets, and since the structure is nothing but a big frame, it is - in an
image all American boys understand - nothing more than a big Erector Set.
As part of the routine maintenance, the people who run the Tower regularly
check the iron pieces that make up the structure. Even though the Tower is
re-painted every seven years, the iron still rusts. After all, the Tower is
exposed to the roughest of elements 365 days a year. To keep the building
structurally sound, inspectors go over the Tower and look for the most
deteriorated pieces of metal. Each year 300 of the worst pieces of iron are
removed from the Tower - one at a time - and replaced with brand new pieces.
The process of reaching the old piece, removing the rusted rivets (which
usually requires grinding and drilling), and placing the new piece is quite
cumbersome. As a result, the workers can usually only replace one piece a
day. After replacement, the new pieces are painted to match the surrounding
area.
At 300 replacements a year, the 18,000 pieces in the Tower are replaced
completely every 60 years. Today, the Tower is 118 years old, so the Tower
has now been "replaced" almost twice.
One more thing: the Tower was a gift to the City of Paris and the bequest
specified that Paris could not sell or dispose of "any part" of the tower
without permission of the corporation that paid for its original
construction. If they were to do that, ownership of the Tower would revert
back to the corporation. As a result, the old pieces removed from the
Tower - the number is around 35,400 now - are all in a warehouse outside of
Paris and their number is growing by 300 per year. Presumably, you could
reassemble these "used" tower pieces into another full-size (albeit rusty)
Eiffel Tower and still have plenty left over.
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I told my kids we'd play after I found what I neeedd. Damnit.