“Imagine for a moment a giddy, ridiculous tower dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack”. To the modern eye, it’s almost inconceivable to imagine the city without that most famous of tours. But this icon of the French capital, indeed of the country itself, was not met with universal acclaim upon the unveiling of its design in the late nineteenth century.
During its construction a group of 300 writers, painters, sculptors and architects launched a campaign to “protect” the beauty of Paris from Gustave Eiffel’s 324 metre-tall feat of iron lattice engineering. The “Artists’ Protest” which raised the “smokestack” objection would ultimately fail and the rest is of course history, albeit one that has seen the tower facilitate the discovery of cosmic rays, survive two world wars and earn its designer a considerable fortune from the entrance fees before it became state property.
Arguably the most recognisable expo structure in the world, with a legacy that contemporary fair organisers can only dream of, the Eiffel Tower was the jewel in the crown of the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1889 through which visitors would enter the fair. In 2010 this “beautiful climbing frame for energetic tourists” (Paul Greenhalgh) welcomed its 250 millionth visitor – not bad for a temporary structure, originally scheduled for demolition in 1909. I (fs)
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