Two years, two months and five days: how 18,038 pieces of iron became the tallest structure on Earth.
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Printing the blueprint…
Site
Champ de Mars
Height
300 m
Pieces
18,038
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Height
0 m
Rivets
0
Date
January 1887
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TheEiffel Tower
Champ de Mars · 28 January 1887 – 31 March 1889
Designed by the engineers Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier with the architect Stephen Sauvestre, and built by Gustave Eiffel’s company for the World’s Fair of 1889, the tower was put together from 18,038 pieces of iron and some 2.5 million rivets in two years, two months and five days. While it was going up, a group of artists protested against this “useless and monstrous” tower. Its permit was for twenty years; it was saved in part because it proved useful as a radio antenna. It was the tallest structure in the world until 1930, and it still stands.