Long before me and Mum went to Paris, I’d seen pictures of the Eiffel Tower and I’d been really impressed by it. So much so, in fact, that I’d told Mum that I hoped she’d take me to see it one day.
And when she did take me and I saw it in real life, I was even more impressed as I hadn’t realised quite how big it was or how it seemed to dominate the Paris skyline from wherever you looked in the city.
Mum promised she’d take me up to the top of it and I could hardly wait, but our first visit was only a short one, as part of the evening tour of Paris, and so we didn’t have enough time.
We did get off the coach there, however, and had a little walk around and I was so excited that I couldn’t stop jumping up and down and squeaking a bit at the sight of this fabulous monument which was brilliantly illuminated against the dark sky.
And next day Mum kept to her promise and we went back – with plenty of time to look around properly and go right up to the top.
But before we did that, I got her to tell me a bit more about the Eiffel Tower and when and why it was built. I also wanted to know why it was called the Eiffel Tower and she said that it was named after the French civil engineer Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923) whose company designed and built it.
Among other things, his company also built the Maria Pia railway bridge over the river Douro at Porto in Portugal in 1877 and, at 1158 ft/353 m, this was the longest single-span bridge in the world at the time…
They also built the framework for the 305 ft/93 m Statue of Liberty in New York harbour. This was a gift from the people of France to celebrate the centenary of the signing of the American Declaration of Independence in 1776. But, although work started on this in 1876, problems in raising enough money meant that it didn’t open to the public until 1886.
That was all very interesting and it was good of Mum to have found out so much for me, but what I really wanted to know was more about the Eiffel Tower itself and so, after a nice cup of coffee, she started to tell me more about it.
She started with the fact that the tower had been built as the centre-piece of the 1889 World Fair – or Exposition Internationale – which was held in Paris from May 15th to November 6ththat year to celebrate the centenary of the Storming of the Bastille Prison which started the French Revolution.
She also said that at this time France was going through an economic recession and it was hoped that the Exposition would attract plenty of visitors, who in turn would spend plenty of money and get the country’s economy moving forward again. And she added that this plan succeeded as over 32,000,000 people attended in the six months the Exposition was open.
The Tower, which was started in January 1887 and opened on March 31st 1889, was meant to be a temporary structure, designed in such a way that it could be built up very quickly and taken down equally quickly twenty years later.
During this time Gustave Eiffel was granted all the money it made, but by the time his lease ran out, the Tower was so popular that the French government took over the running of it and have looked after it ever since.
Made of wrought iron, its lattice-work frame weighs 7300 tons and is held together by a total of 2,500,000 rivets…
It stands 1083 ft/330 m high and was the tallest man-made structure in the world until 1930 when the Chrysler Building in New York was completed.
Once I’d taken in all that information, it was time for me and Mum to buy our tickets and set off up the Tower.
She asked if I wanted to go by lift or walk up the steps. I asked her how many steps there were and she said there were 300 up to the first landing, followed by another 300 to the second landing, plus another flight – which was rarely used – going up to the third landing, so I think you can guess what my answer was!
So we got the lift and had a look round the first two landings, before being whizzed up to the top landing at 906 ft/276 m above the ground, from where we had fabulous views of Paris in all directions – though Mum had to lift me up so that I could see out of the windows.
That’s all for today as I’m running out of space, so take care and stay safe – and look out for another tale from me soon!
Follow my next blog: 277. MY MUM THE STORY-TELLER – PART ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-ONE
07/09/2023
Wilf the bear-faced blogger 