MuseumChick | Danee Gilmartin

This is my last post I will be posting as a French resident (the French gov. gave my husband a 3 year visa, but me only one year, eligible for renewal. I guess they thought he might want to escape me for a few years). But first, I can’t leave without a proper goodbye to the building that has greeted me every morning from my window.

So, here are 10 interesting facts about the Eiffel Tower followed by my 10 favorite photos I took of it throughout my year in Paris:

1. It was inaugurated March 31, 1889 and built for the Universal Exhibition in celebration of the French Revolution. The construction took 2 years, 2 months and 5 days.

2. That makes it 121 years old.

3. The contractor is Gustave Eiffel & Cie and the architect Stephan Sauvestre.

4. The weight is 10,100 tons.

5. The height is 324 meters to the top of the flag pole.

6. If you are brave enough to climb it, there are 1665 steps.

7. It is owned by the City of Paris.

8. It gets entirely repainted every 7 years and has been re-painted 18 times since its initial construction

9. Eiffel encouraged research into radio transmission by using the tower as a radio mast. Today the tower holds many antennas, including a television mast.

10. It’s made of iron and protected from oxidation by many layers of paint. It has changed color several times and is slightly shaded off towards the top to ensure that the color is perceived to be the same all the way up.

©2010 Danee Gilmartin All rights reserved