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The Eiffel Tower (, ) is an Iron Tower built on the '' Champ De Mars '' beside the River Seine in Paris , France . The tower has become a global Icon of France. INTRODUCTION The Parisian landmark is the , people visited the tower in 2006http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/teiffel/uk/documentation/structure/page/chiffres.html and more than since its construction.http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/teiffel/uk/documentation/chiffres/page/frequentation.html This makes the tower the most visited paid monument in the world per year.http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3232,36-938349,0.html Including the 24 m (79 ft) antenna, the structure is 324 m ( ft) high (since 2000), which is equivalent to about 81 levels in a conventional building. At the time of its construction in 1887, the tower replaced the Washington Monument as the World's Tallest Structure , a title it retained until 1930, when New York City 's Chrysler Building (319 m — ft tall) was completed.1 The tower is now the fifth-tallest structure in France. The Eiffel Tower is the tallest structure in Paris, with the second-tallest being the Tour Montparnasse (210 m — 689 ft), although that will soon be surpassed by Tour AXA ( m — ft). The structure of the Eiffel Tower weighs tons. Depending on the ambient temperature, the top of the tower may shift away from the sun by up to 18 cm (7 in), due to thermal expansion of the metal on the side facing the sun. The tower also sways 6-7 cm (2-3 in) in the wind.http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/teiffel/uk/documentation/structure/page/chiffres.html The first and second levels are accessible by stairs and lifts. A ticket booth at the south tower base sells tickets to use the stairs which begin at that location. On the first platform, the stairs continue up from the east tower. The third level summit is only accessible by lift. Once you are on the first or second platform, the stairs are open for anyone to ascend or descend regardless if you have purchased a lift ticket or stair ticket. The actual count of stairs includes 9 steps to the ticket booth at the base, 328 steps to the first level, 340 steps to the second level, and 18 steps to the lift platform on the second level. When exiting the lift at the third level, 15 more steps exist to ascend to the upper observation platform. The actual step count is printed periodically on the side of the stairs to give an indication of progress. The majority of the ascent allows for an unhindered view of the area directly beneath and around the tower except during brief stretches of the stairway that are enclosed. Maintenance of the tower includes applying 50 to 60 tons of three graded tones of paint every seven years to protect it from rust. On occasion, the color of the paint is changed — the tower is currently painted a shade of brownish-grey. However, the tower is actually painted three different colors in order to make it look the same color. The colors change from dark to light from top to bottom, but it looks the same because of the background (the sky being light and the ground being dark).http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/teiffel/uk/documentation/dossiers/page/peinture.html On the first floor, there are interactive consoles hosting a poll for the color to use for a future session of painting. The co-architects of the Eiffel Tower are Emile Nouguier, Maurice Koechlin and Stephen Sauvestre.http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/teiffel/uk/documentation/dossiers/page/invention.html BACKGROUND The structure was built between 1887 and 1889 as the entrance arch for the Exposition Universelle , a World's Fair marking the centennial celebration of the French Revolution . Eiffel originally planned to build it in Canada, for the Universal Exposition of 1888, but they rejected it. The tower was inaugurated on 31 March , 1889 , and opened on 6 May . Three hundred workers joined together 18,038 pieces of Puddled Iron (a very pure form of structural iron), using two and a half million rivets, in a structural design by Maurice Koechlin . The risk of accident was great, for unlike modern skyscrapers the tower is an open frame without any intermediate floors except the two platforms. Yet because Eiffel took safety precautions including use of movable stagings, guard-rails and screens, only one man died. The tower was met with dupa from the public when it was built, with many calling it an eyesore. (Novelist Guy De Maupassant — who claimed to hate the tower — supposedly ate lunch at the Tower's restaurant every day. When asked why, he answered that it was the one place in Paris where you couldn't see the Tower.) Today, it is widely considered to be a striking piece of structural art. One of the great Hollywood movie clichés is that the view from a Parisian window always includes the tower. In reality, since zoning restrictions limit the height of most buildings in Paris to a few Storey s, only the very few taller buildings have a clear view of the tower. Eiffel had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years, meaning it would have had to be dismantled in 1909, when its ownership would revert to the City of Paris. The City had planned to tear it down (part of the original contest rules for designing a tower was that it could be easily demolished) but as the tower proved valuable for communication purposes, it was allowed to remain after the expiration of the permit. The military used it to dispatch Parisian taxis to the front line during the First Battle Of The Marne , and it therefore became a victory statue of that battle. SHAPE OF THE TOWER At the time the tower was built many people were shocked by its daring shape. Gustave Eiffel was criticized for the design and accused of trying to create something artistic, or inartistic according to the viewer, without regard to engineering. Eiffel and his engineers, as renowned bridge builders however, understood the importance of wind forces and knew that if they were going to build the tallest structure in the world they had to be certain it would withstand the wind. In an interview reported in the newspaper Le Temps, Eiffel said:
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| Image:paris Arcjpg | "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/information/entry/Paris" class="copylinks">Paris seen from the Arc De Triomphe with the Eiffel Tower to the right |
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| Image:Champ De Mars From The Eiffel Tower - July 2006jpgLooking South East Down The | "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/information/entry/Champ_de_Mars" class="copylinks">Champ De Mars , Tour Montparnasse in the distance and Les Invalides far left |
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| Image:eiffeltrocaderoarp750pixjpgNorthwest From The Tower, Across The River | "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/information/entry/Seine" class="copylinks">Seine , showing the Trocadéro gardens and the Palais De Chaillot A pleasure boat cruises on the river |
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| Image:Eiffel Tower 06jpgEiffel Tower While France Was Bidding For The Olympic Games, Summer | "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/information/entry/2005" class="copylinks">2005 |
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| Image:Photo 417jpgEiffel Tower On | "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/information/entry/Bastille_Day" class="copylinks">Bastille Day |
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| Image:Pki-tower-94jpgReplica At | "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/information/entry/Kings_Island" class="copylinks">Kings Island near Cincinnati , Ohio |
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