Message:19884 In: TODAY.WW
From: KF5JRVDate: Tue, 31 Mar 26 09:20:00 Z
Newsgroups: TODAY.WW
Subject: Today in History - Mar 31
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On March 31, 1889, the Eiffel Tower is dedicated in Paris in a ceremony presided over by Gustave Eiffel, the tower’s designer
, and attended by French Prime Minister Pierre Tirard, a handful of other dignitaries and 200 construction workers.
In 1889, to honor of the centenary of the French Revolution, the French government planned an international exposition and anno
unced a design competition for a monument to be built on the Champ-de-Mars in central Paris. Out of more than 100 designs submi
tted, the Centennial Committee chose Eiffel’s plan of an open-lattice wrought-iron tower that would reach almost 1,000 feet a
bove Paris and be the world’s tallest man-made structure. Eiffel, a noted bridge builder, was a master of metal construction
and designed the framework of the Statue of Liberty that had recently been erected in New York Harbor.
Eiffel’s tower was greeted with skepticism from critics who argued that it would be structurally unsound, and indignation fro
m others who thought it would be an eyesore in the heart of Paris. Unperturbed, Eiffel completed his great tower under budget i
n just two years. Only one worker lost his life during construction, which at the time was a remarkably low casualty number for
a project of that magnitude. The light, airy structure was by all accounts a technological wonder and within a few decades cam
e to be regarded as an architectural masterpiece.
The Eiffel Tower is 984 feet tall and consists of an iron framework supported on four masonry piers, from which rise four colum
ns that unite to form a single vertical tower. Platforms, each with an observation deck, are at three levels. Elevators ascend
the piers on a curve, and Eiffel contracted the Otis Elevator Company of the United States to design the tower’s famous glass
-cage elevators.
The elevators were not completed by March 31, 1889, however, so Gustave Eiffel ascended the tower’s stairs with a few hardy c
ompanions and raised an enormous French tricolor on the structure’s flagpole. Fireworks were then set off from the second pla
tform. Eiffel and his party descended, and the architect addressed the guests and about 200 workers. In early May, the Paris In
ternational Exposition opened, and the tower served as the entrance gateway to the giant fair.
The Eiffel Tower remained the world’s tallest man-made structure until the completion of the Chrysler Building in New York in
1930. Incredibly, the Eiffel Tower was almost demolished when the International Exposition’s 20-year lease on the land expir
ed in 1909, but its value as an antenna for radio transmission saved it. It remains largely unchanged today and is one of the w
orld’s premier tourist attractions.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
Email KF5JRV@gmail.com
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