The Eiffel Tower is a 324-meter-high puddled iron tower (with antennas) located in Paris, at the north-western end of Champ-de-Mars Park on the banks of the Seine in the 7th arrondissement. Its official address is 5, avenue Anatole-France.

history of the Eiffel Tower

Built in two years by Gustave Eiffel and his collaborators for the Universal Exhibition of Paris of 1889, and initially named "tower of 300 meters", it became the symbol of the French capital and a tourist site of foreground: it is is the third most visited French cultural site in 2015, with 5.9 million visitors in 20163. Since its opening to the public, it has welcomed more than 300 million visitors.

Originally 312 meters high, the Eiffel Tower remained the tallest monument in the world for forty years. The second level of the third floor, sometimes called the fourth floor, located at 279.11 meters, is the highest publicly accessible observation platform in the European Union and the second tallest in Europe, behind the Ostankino Tower in Moscow. culminating at 337 meters. The height of the tower has been increased several times by the installation of numerous antennas. Used in the past for many scientific experiments, it is now used as a transmitter for radio and television programs.

The history of the construction of the Eiffel Tower

On March 31, 1889, the Eiffel Tower was inaugurated after two years and two months of construction. What was then the tallest man-made building in the world was to be the flagship monument of the 1889 Universal Exhibition, whose theme was the French Revolution.

A tower which was to have been the symbol of the celebration of the progress of science and technology in France since 1789, but whose construction sparked heated controversy, especially from French artists and intellectuals who published various pamphlets and articles against this "Babel Tower".

Initially provisional, then threatened with destruction, the Eiffel Tower was however an immediate success when it opened for the Universal Exhibition of 1889. A monument that succeeded in spite of the controversies, which has today become the most famous in the world.