37 Fun Facts About Eiffel Tower

Which famous monument's inner iron skeleton was designed by Gustave Eiffel, a few years before his Paris tower?

The Statue of Liberty's copper skin hangs on a skeleton Eiffel designed after the statue's first engineer, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, died in 1879.

The Eiffel Tower was built for a world's fair marking the 100th anniversary of what?

The French Revolution's centenary was the occasion, so most of Europe's monarchies refused to take part in the fair officially.

By what affectionate nickname is the tower known in France?

The French call the tower La dame de fer, 'The Iron Lady', after the roughly 7,300 tonnes of wrought iron it is built from.

Which symbol did Anne Hidalgo want kept on the Eiffel Tower after the 2024 Games?

Olympic rings went up for the Games, and Hidalgo's plan to keep them upset Gustave Eiffel's descendants, who said the tower was not meant as an advertising platform.

In 1989, which famous high-wire artist walked a sloping cable across the Seine to the Eiffel Tower's second level?

Philippe Petit made the walk with the approval of Paris mayor Jacques Chirac, 15 years after secretly crossing between New York's Twin Towers.

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

The Washington Monument had only just become the world's tallest in 1884, after its construction stalled for more than 20 years, when the tower overtook it.

Which New York skyscraper became the first building to stand taller than the Eiffel Tower?

The Chrysler Building's needle-like spire was raised into place in 1929, lifting it past both 40 Wall Street and the Eiffel Tower.

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

Decorative arches at the base were Sauvestre's addition, and they hold nothing up: they were added just to make the tower look sturdier.

Which US city's casino has a half-size Eiffel Tower copy?

Las Vegas got its copy at the Paris resort, where the architect worked from Gustave Eiffel's original blueprints.

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

Charles Garnier, architect of the Paris Opera, led the February 1887 'Protest against the Tower of Monsieur Eiffel'; the committee had one member for each metre of the planned 300-metre height.

Which French writer supposedly lunched at the Eiffel Tower because it was the one Paris spot with no view of it?

Guy de Maupassant had signed the artists' 1887 protest against the tower, and is said to have eaten there just to avoid seeing it.

How many visitors climbed the Eiffel Tower's 1,710 steps to the top before its lifts started running in May 1889?

Nearly 30,000 made the climb on foot, passing a second-level printing press where Le Figaro turned out a special souvenir edition.

Which inventor visited Gustave Eiffel's private apartment at the top of the Eiffel Tower?

Thomas Edison came up during the 1889 fair and presented Eiffel with one of his new phonographs as a gift.

What saved the Eiffel Tower from its planned demolition?

Its value for radio telegraphy saved it, and in the First World War its radio station went on to serve the French military.

Which elasticity researcher is missing from the Eiffel Tower's 72 names?

Sophie Germain's research on elasticity went unhonoured there, and a 1913 book suggested she was left out simply for being a woman.

What was Franz Reichelt testing when he died jumping from the Eiffel Tower's first level in 1912?

A parachute suit of his own design, which failed to open while cameras filmed his fatal jump from the first level.

Which car maker's illuminated name ran down three sides of the Eiffel Tower from 1925?

Citroën's name went up because the tower's grand lighting scheme could only be paid for with advertising, and André Citroën agreed to sponsor it.

Which con artist 'sold' the Eiffel Tower for scrap metal in 1925?

Victor Lustig posed as a government official, told scrap dealers the tower was too costly to keep, and talked one of them into paying for it.

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

Cut the cables: the French did this to make the tower useless to the occupiers, instead of wrecking the lifts outright.

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

Dietrich von Choltitz, the military governor of Paris, disobeyed the order and surrendered the city to Free French forces on 25 August 1944.

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

Tokyo Tower, a red-and-white lattice homage opened in 1958, reached 333 metres, topping the 320-metre Eiffel Tower of the time.

What colour was the Eiffel Tower originally painted?

Reddish brown came first, and ahead of the 2024 Olympics painters began turning it a golden yellow-brown, said to be the shade Eiffel himself wanted.

Why is the tower painted in three progressively different shades?

The shades are graded to complement the sky: darker at the base and lighter at the top, so the colour reads evenly against the Paris sky; the tower has been fully repainted 19 times since 1889.

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

About 60 tonnes of paint goes on each time, and painters repeat the job roughly every seven years to keep the iron from rusting.

On a sunny day, which way does the top of the Eiffel Tower lean?

Away from the sun: the iron on the sunny side heats up and expands, which tilts the top of the tower the other way.

When does the Eiffel Tower sparkle after dark?

Every hour on the hour: the sparkle began for the millennium, and because those lights weren't built to last, a new set replaced them in 2003.

Which singer performed from the Eiffel Tower at the Paris 2024 opening ceremony?

Céline Dion made it her first live performance since revealing she has stiff person syndrome.

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

Blackpool Tower opened in May 1894 after Mayor John Bickerstaffe saw the Eiffel Tower at the 1889 fair; at 158 metres it is about half the height of the Paris original.

Which landmark faces the Eiffel Tower directly across the Seine?

The Palais de Chaillot is where the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

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

Otis was the only firm willing to take the risk, because the tower's sloping legs meant its lifts had to climb at a changing angle to the second level.

In 1910, what did Theodor Wulf find more of than expected atop the Eiffel Tower?

Radiation: Wulf expected far less of it so high above the ground, and the surprise was an early clue to what are now known as cosmic rays.

In 1984, what did American pilot Robert Moriarty famously fly between the Eiffel Tower's legs?

A small plane, a Beechcraft Bonanza, pulled off a stunt that had killed an earlier pilot who tried to fly under the tower in 1926.

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

Alberto Santos-Dumont made the round trip in his No. 6 airship, then shared the prize money with the crew who had helped him.

Which culture minister declared the Eiffel Tower a historical monument in 1964?

André Malraux also had the grime of centuries scrubbed from the facades of Paris's great public buildings.

What did Gustave Eiffel get in return for paying most of his tower's building costs himself?

20 years' income let Eiffel earn back his investment, after which the tower was due to pass to the city, which planned to take it down.

Which US city received a dismantled Eiffel Tower restaurant, reassembled there in the 1980s?

New Orleans got it after the tower's 1981 renovation stripped out excess weight, and it was rebuilt near the Garden District as a restaurant and event hall.

Which daredevil was arrested after an unauthorised jump from the Eiffel Tower in 1987?

A. J. Hackett was released soon after, and the next year he opened a commercial bungy jump on New Zealand's Kawarau Bridge.