50 Fun Facts About Eiffel Tower

In which city does the Eiffel Tower stand?

It rises from the Champ de Mars, a park on the Left Bank of the Seine.

The tower is named after which engineer?

His company designed and built it between 1887 and 1889, though the design itself came from two of his senior engineers.

The tower was built as the centrepiece of which event?

The fair marked the centenary of the French Revolution; the tower was only meant to be temporary.

What is the tower's local nickname, 'La dame de fer', in English?

It comes from the wrought iron the tower is made of; the metal weighs about 7,300 tonnes.

Roughly how tall did the Eiffel Tower become after its 2022 aerial extension?

That is about the height of an 81-storey building; a new aerial added in March 2022 took it to 330 m. The 1957 broadcasting aerial had pushed it above the Chrysler Building again.

How many levels of the tower are open to visitors?

There are restaurants on the first and second levels and a champagne bar at the top.

How many steps does it take to climb from the ground to the second level?

Each stage is a little over 300 steps; the staircase continues to the top but is normally closed to the public.

Which structure did the Eiffel Tower overtake to become the world's tallest human-made structure?

It kept the title for 41 years, until the Chrysler Building was finished in New York in 1930.

Which New York skyscraper took the world's-tallest-structure title from the Eiffel Tower in 1930?

The tower had been the first structure ever to pass both the 200-metre and 300-metre marks.

Which two engineers at Eiffel's company are credited with the tower's design?

Koechlin sketched the 'great pylon' at home in May 1884; architect Stephen Sauvestre later added the decorative arches.

What did architect Stephen Sauvestre add to the engineers' original design?

The arches are purely ornamental; they made the tower look more substantial and gave the fair a grand entrance.

How many rivets hold the tower's 18,038 iron pieces together?

Parts arrived by horse-drawn cart from a factory in Levallois-Perret; anything that did not fit was sent back rather than altered on site.

How many workers died during the tower's construction?

Eiffel's movable gangways, guardrails and screens made it unusually safe for its era, with 300 people on site.

Who led the 'Committee of Three Hundred' of artists protesting the tower?

The Paris Opera architect called it a 'truly tragic street lamp'; there was one member for each metre of the planned height.

Which writer supposedly lunched in the tower's restaurant daily because it was the one place he couldn't see it?

He was one of the signatories to the artists' protest against the 'useless and monstrous' tower.

On 31 March 1889 Eiffel led officials to the top on foot. Roughly how long did the climb take?

The lifts were not working yet; he stopped often to explain features and hoisted a Tricolour at the top to a 25-gun salute.

How many visitors climbed the 1,710 steps to the top before the lifts started running in May 1889?

By the end of the exposition nearly 1.9 million people had visited; the top ticket cost 5 francs.

Which inventor visited Eiffel's private apartment at the top and gave him a phonograph?

Other famous 1889 visitors included Sarah Bernhardt and Buffalo Bill Cody, whose Wild West show played at the fair.

The tower was originally due to be dismantled in which year?

Its usefulness as a radio-telegraphy mast saved it, and it joined the International Time Service in 1910.

What saved the tower from its planned demolition?

In 1914 its transmitter jammed German communications before the First Battle of the Marne.

The names of how many French scientists and engineers are engraved on the tower?

Eiffel called it an 'invocation of science' to answer the artists' protests; the names were painted over and restored in 1986-87.

What was Austrian tailor Franz Reichelt testing when he died jumping from the first level in 1912?

He jumped from 57 metres; the fall was captured on film by newsreel cameras.

What did Father Theodor Wulf incidentally discover by taking measurements at the tower's top and bottom in 1910?

He found more radiant energy at the top than expected, which pointed to radiation from beyond the atmosphere.

A message intercepted by the tower's wireless station in 1917 helped convict which famous spy?

The coded message between Germany and Spain referenced 'Operative H-21'; the dancer was executed by firing squad.

Which car maker's illuminated name covered three sides of the tower from 1925 to 1934?

It was the tallest advertising space in the world at the time.

Which con artist 'sold' the tower for scrap metal, twice, in 1925?

He posed as a government official and picked scrap dealers as marks; the first victim was too embarrassed to go to the police.

What did the French do to the tower's lifts when Germany occupied Paris in 1940?

They were not repaired until 1946; German soldiers had to climb on foot to hoist a swastika flag that blew away within hours.

Which general did Hitler order to demolish the tower along with the rest of Paris in 1944?

He famously did not carry out the order; a Tricolour was back on top by 25 August.

A communications mast in which Japanese city, inspired by the Eiffel design, became the world's tallest tower in 1958?

Tokyo Tower is a red-and-white homage; the Eiffel Tower remains the tallest freestanding structure in France.

Which Canadian city reportedly negotiated to borrow the tower for its 1967 world's fair?

Mayor Jean Drapeau's secret deal with de Gaulle was allegedly vetoed by the tower's operating company.

What colour was the tower originally painted?

It changed to 'Eiffel Tower Brown' in 1968; the current scheme uses three shades, lighter at the top.

Why is the tower painted in three progressively different shades?

It is lighter at the top and darker at the base; the tower has been fully repainted at least 19 times.

Roughly how much paint goes on the tower each time it is repainted?

Repainting happens about every seven years; lead paint was only phased out in 2001.

How far can the top of the tower shift away from the sun on a hot day?

The metal on the sunny side expands; wind, by contrast, sways it only about 9 cm.

The Michelin-starred restaurant on the second level is named after which writer?

Alain Ducasse ran it from 2007 to 2017; it now belongs to three-star chef Frédéric Anton.

What seasonal attraction has appeared on the first level since 2004?

A glass floor was added to the same level during the 2014 refurbishment.

For how long does the tower sparkle each hour after dark?

Twenty thousand flashing bulbs first went on for the millennium; the operating company claims the light show as a copyrighted work of art.

How many visitors had the tower welcomed by November 2002?

It has run at its capacity of about seven million a year since 2003, the most of any paid-entry monument on Earth.

Which English seaside town built its own Eiffel-inspired tower after its mayor visited the 1889 fair?

Sir John Bickerstaffe's tower opened in 1894; Las Vegas has a half-scale copy and Paris, Texas a small one.

Which US casino resort has a half-scale replica of the tower?

There are also one-third-scale versions at the Kings Island and Kings Dominion amusement parks.

Which American firm built the original curved lifts to the second level when no French firm bid?

The fair's charter banned foreign material, so the deadline was extended, but the contract still went to Otis in July 1887.

How many years had the original second-to-third-level lifts been in service when replaced in 1982?

They had been closed every winter because the water in their hydraulic drive froze; the new cars cut the journey from eight minutes to under two.

Who flew a Beechcraft Bonanza under the tower on 31 March 1984?

Pilot Leon Collet had died attempting the same feat in 1926 when his aircraft snagged an aerial.

Which aviator won 100,000 francs in 1901 for flying an airship from Saint-Cloud around the tower and back?

He flew his No. 6 airship for the Deutsch de la Meurthe prize.

In which year did the tower become part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site?

The listing is 'Paris, Banks of the Seine'; France had declared it a historical monument in 1964.

Which culture minister declared the tower a historical monument in 1964?

The novelist-minister's decision came 75 years after the tower opened.

What is the nearest Paris Metro station to the tower?

The nearest RER stop is Champ de Mars-Tour Eiffel.

Under his 1887 contract, Eiffel kept the tower's income for the fair plus how many years?

He put up much of the capital himself and got only 1.5 million francs of the estimated 6.5 million cost from the state.

The 1889 restaurant that was later sold and shipped abroad ended up in which US city?

It was rebuilt on the edge of the Garden District as a restaurant and event hall.

Which bungee-jumping pioneer leapt from the top of the tower in 1987 and was arrested?

It was one of his first jumps, made with a special cord he had helped develop.