By Destination point: Paris, the great Eiffel Tower
Paris, capital of France, of love, of the revolution in Paris, these buildings, its bridges, its cafes Too expensive, the underground, the smell a bit questionable, these ugly grilled pigeons that seem to have a disease. I stop there, do you understand?
But in any case, what would Paris be without this huge metal tower, three hundred and twenty-four meters high, that pierces its sky to illuminate the city with a thousand lights that has become famous to become one of the most visited monuments in the world ? I am speaking of course of very famous people and that is why Parisians are lucky. Because you know, for those of you who follow me on Twitch, I do a lot of Lego building with Cali.
And precisely he sent me this incredible Eiffel Tower so that we can present it to you. And so much to say that there is work, an assembly of more than ten thousand pieces knowing that the real Eiffel Tower, the compounds of about eighteen pieces all this forms a magnificent work of collection of one meter forty-nine, and fifty-five euros, seven centimeters on a side. This is how we warn You have to see the salon that goes with it. This model is full of details, such as the green spaces with their open paths between the feet of the tower, just as they were arranged when it was inaugurated in the 19th century. We also find these famous elevators, which will serve as a reference point during construction, so what you need to immerse yourself in time and discover all aspects of this aesthetic and technical feat of the Belle Epoque.
So what is the history of the construction of the famous iron lady? How the one that was supposed to be an ephemeral work, was dismantled quite quickly and finally became the symbol of Paris and France?
Good. This is what I invite you to discover in this article. To fully understand the origins of the Tower, it is necessary, as always, to place it a bit in its context. We are therefore at the end of the 19th century in France, a very rich period that we call the Belle Epoque, then very rich economically, but also very loaded with history, social and industrial changes and above all political turmoil. During this period, France has no less than seven different political regimes since the revolution of 1789, two empires, three constitutional monarchies of the Republic and a small civil war as a plus.
This last insurrection of the Paris commune of 1871 ends in blood and the Third Republic then seems to lose the war against Prussia and the famous Alsace Lorraine in 1889, the famous date of the anniversary, the centenary of the French Revolution. Suffice it to say that the stakes are high. We really have to mark the occasion and consolidate the stability of the new regime while recreating a political and historical connection to the century, to everything the country has been through. And then, by the way, we’re trying to do a ten world exposition, so a message to the whole world. We want to show that France is a great colonial, civilizing power that brings technical progress. The 20th century is approaching and she intends to enter it with great fanfare. The World’s Fairs, the first of which was staged in the midst of the industrial revolution in London in 1851, were a sort of showcase for modern civilization and quite simple.
The host country invites other nations to its territory and organizes a kind of mega choir. All the latest possible innovations of the time, ways to impress the gallery and show their neighbors, through their industrial, technical and artistic know-how, the economic prosperity of the host country. But who says innovation, says engineer. And it is here that we come across the father of the Iron Lady Gustave Eiffel and under the name of Monique, known as Eiffel, in Dijon in 1832, this specialist engineer first in China to later take over the family factory.
But one came to compromise his Blancs and then returned to metallurgy at just twenty-six years old, already directing the construction of the Saint Jean railway bridge in Bordeaux and in 1800, at the age of thirty-four, he founded his own company in the purchase the Powell workshops in Levallois-perret agronomist and manufactures companies.
He directs many constructions, especially railway bridges, the best known being the Garabit viaduct, which crosses the river gorges to connect Béziers with Paris thanks to a train that crosses the Massif Central. The workshops are also associated with the construction of the Statue of Liberty.
When Eugène Viollet-le-duc, responsible for designing the internal structure of the statue, dies. Eiffel is called to the rescue to lead some modifications and bring his paw to the building. Like what, Gustave obviously had a soft spot for famous monuments. But even with a maximum, the know-how, one does not
or thus becomes the star of the Universal Exhibition in Paris. Also, when we say effect, we shouldn’t be thinking too much of Gustave, but of industrial empires. Because this great boss, he especially has the gift of surrounding himself with brilliant people, who carry out projects and contribute new ideas. And all this little person sniffing out the spirit of the times, new ideas, good opportunities that cannot be missed is the proof.
It is precisely the Eiffel Tower. At that time, a wish on the minds of architects was to be able to build a monumental tower of a thousand feet, or three hundred and four meters that will touch the sky. But this dream runs into a thousand problems. And for the Universal Exposition of 1876, the two Americans from Philadelphia Clark Rive had already thought of building an immense cylindrical pylon nine meters in diameter and three hundred meters long. The project never saw the light. In 1884 it was the turn of the Frenchman Maurice Schelling and he imagined an identical project. And who is the patron of these two little geniuses? The Do it workshops have been directing construction works for ten years now. Maurice, who worked on the Garabit viaduct, now leads the goal.
And so one of the most important works of France was born, that is its history, its legacy and the pride of the majority of the French.
