La Dame de Fer, "The Iron Lady."

The engineer that built the tower was Gustave Eiffel but was ​​was actually designed by one of his employees.  The tower was built for the World’s Fair.  The French complained at first about the tower. Parisians thought it looked like a nail blended in Paris in the middle of a beautiful city.  Paris at that time was a city mostly of limestone buildings and it took many years for the French to accept this metal tower.  

Before Parisian’s accepted the tower, they signed a petition for its destruction. The government assured the citizens that it was built for the world exhibit and was only temporary being just constructed for the World’s Fair and only had the contract for 20 years.  The State was convinced to keep it by Gustave Eiffel.  He put on the top a radio transmitter to make the tower useful.  During its construction that took two years, two months and five days there were no accidents.  This helped to create a better image of the city.

In 1889 Paris commemorate and celebrate the French Revolution. At that time the Eiffel Tower was the highest building in the world up until the Chrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930’s.  The Eiffel Towers was originally 300 meters tall and with the addition of the radio tower is 324 meters high.  Originally people had to walk up the tower. To the second floor there are 700 steps, and to the top floor, there are 1665 steps. On May 15th, 1889 when the tower was celebrated, 150 guests were invited to climb to the top of the Tower, and only 14 managed to make it to the top. 

Every seven years the Eiffel Tower is repainted by hand.  It takes 25 painters to strip and recoat the Tower with 60 tons of paint and 1500 brushes. All “remote” work is forbidden, so no paint guns are allowed, and painters always have a brush in hand. 

At night time the Eiffel Tower is light up from nightfall to 1:00 am with 20,000 light bulbs, 5,000 on each side. An interesting fact, it is illegal to take a picture at night of the Eiffel Tower since it is considered artwork and is protected by copyright laws.