The Eiffel Tower

     We all know or have heard about the Eiffel Tower.  We know that it's one of the attractions that Paris is most famous for.  But you probably haven't heard about who built it, why it was built, when it was built.  The Eiffel Tower is one of France's most famous monuments. 
     The Eiffel tower first was thought up by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel.  That's where the "Eiffel" part came in.  The plan was to build the Eiffel tower for the International Exhibition of France in 1889, a commemoration to the 100 year anniversary of the French Revolution.  Now, this was going to take a lot of effort and hard work in order to build a tower that would be known as the tallest building until 1930.  There would need to be roughly 300 workers to build the Eiffel Tower.  Once everything was in order and ready for go, the task could finally begin.  

     It took lots of commitment to be a builder of the Eiffel tower.  First off, a builder needs to be willing to work for two years on this tower.  Second, they had to be aware of the fact that they, in the smallest of possibilities, could die.  Nobody wanted to be like this one man who was trying to impress his girlfriend by showing her what he was working on and lost his grip,  fell to the ground, and died.  All of the workers worked so hard and made LOTS of progress within those two years of building the Eiffel Tower.  When building the Eiffel Tower some of the materials used were:

• rivets
• paint
• big iron pieces                                                                                                                                                                                             

Eiffel Tower construction video:

     The Eiffel Tower was very wonderous as a monument representing something, but also was very modern at the time.  The Eiffel tower was the first building/tower to have a radio communicator.  This was ground breaking because there had never been anything like this before and would be a milestone in technology history.
     Now, the next time that you are studying, learning, or talking about the Eiffel Tower, you can not only say, "I've heard of that!", but explain and describe about it!

Some interesting facts:

1. 2.5 million rivets
2. 300 steel workers, and 2 years (1887-1889) to construct it.
3. Sway of at most 12 cm in high winds.
4. Height varies up to 15 cm depending on temperature.
5. 15,000 iron pieces (excluding rivets). 
6. 40 tons of paint. 
7. 1652 steps to the top

Sources:

• http://www.corrosion-doctors.org/Landmarks/eiffel-history.htm 
• http://www.google.com/imgres?q=eiffel+tower&um=1&hl=en&safe=active&sa=N&biw=1024&bih=619&tbm=isch&tbnid=-5sWtWKtunY09M:&imgrefurl=http://www.visitingdc.com/paris/eiffel-tower-picture.asp&docid=EhpqoqIxLoL1CM&imgurl=http://www.visitingdc.com/images/eiffel-tower-picture.jpg&w=385&h=540&ei=h9JOT4PDAobNmQX7xt2rCg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=660&vpy=112&dur=3816&hovh=266&hovw=189&tx=70&ty=97&sig=116451267379753103044&page=1&tbnh=132&tbnw=94&start=0&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0
• http://www.eiffel-tower.us/Eiffel-Tower-History.html