Here are some facts about the Eiffel Tower:
- The Eiffel Tower is located on the Left Bank in the heart of Paris. It has become the symbol of France and is visited by about 7 million people every year.
- Designed for the 1889 Paris Exposition, the Eiffel Tower was not intended to be permanent.
- Over 100 artists and designers submitted designs for the tower.
- It took 300 workers only two years to construct the tower. During that time, only one worker died during the construction, thanks to safety precautions insisted upon by the architects.
- The tower is 1,050 feet tall and for 41 years after it was built, was the tallest structure in the world. There are 1655 steps from the ground level to the top.
- The weight of the metal parts of the structure is 7,300 tons. Over 18,000 iron parts were used in the tower’s construction, including an estimated 2,500,000 steel rivets.
- There are more than 30 replicas of the Eiffel Tower in cities around the world, including a tower exactly half the size in Las Vegas and one slightly taller in Tokyo.
- The Blackpool Tower in England is inspired by the Eiffel Tower.
- The Eiffel Tower is painted every 7 years, using an estimated 60 tons of paint. It takes between 15 and 18 months to paint the entire structure.
- The structure sways by several inches during high winds, although it deliberately decided to build it of steel to show that steel was just as strong as stone.
- LEGO have produced an Eiffel Tower LEGO set. The set number is 10181 and it contains 3428 bricks.
- In 2004, the tower’s first floor was converted into an ice skating rink. It has also been the site of the world’s largest advertisement at the time, when the car company Citroen converted the four corners into a giant poster.
