One of the most famous series of construction progress photos were taken between 1887-1889 documenting the construction of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. I’ve created a new Eiffel Tower project using JobSiteVisitor.com’s service to organize and manage these photos. You can find the project under the “Sample Projects” link at the bottom of the clip board on the JobSiteVisitor.com’s home page.

Even if you don’t have a love for construction or photography I think it’s fair to say that everyone can appreciate these series of photos.

There were some interesting things I ran across while researching these photos:

Project Design: Two engineers, Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nougier, who worked for Gustave Eiffel, first came up with the design in 1883. Eiffel bought the rights and design from these guys and went and pitched it to the city of Barcelona who was holding an Exposition in 1888. When Barcelona didn’t want the tower Eiffel turned around and pitched it to the city of Paris for their World Exposition in 1889 (Worlds Fair). I thought it was interesting to read that Eiffel was better know at that time for his organizational, management, and business skills than he was for his engineering design skills.

Project Critics: Before the start of construction their were many French critics of the project who claimed that the tower would be an eyesore and destroy the image Paris. It was Gustave Eiffel, the project’s engineer and developer, who’s persistence and vision prevailed to create one of the most recognized and celebrated landmarks around the world.

Projects Financing: Eiffel had proceeded with the working drawings (today known as construction drawings or CD’s) at risk knowing full well that he would be win the design competition held in 1886. As predicted Eiffel was awarded the project however their were strings attached, he had to finance the construction cost. The deal was that if Eiffel paid for the construction he could have the profits from the souvenirs, theater, and restaurant for the next 20 years, till 1908 when the structure was to be dismantled. Eiffel ended up raising 6.5 million Francs, an incredible amount of money to finance his portion and the French threw in 1.5 million to help him out.
Construction Cost = 7,800,000 francs.

Project Schedule: In 1886 Eiffel was awarded the project and then on January 23, 1887 they broke ground. The project was inaugurated on March 31, 1889.
Construction Duration = 2 YEARS – 2 MONTHS -  5 DAYS

Other Interesting Notes:

Thomas Edison, who invented the electric light bulb a decade earlier in 1879, was also was able to promote his new invention with a beacon atop of the Eiffel tower during the Exposition. This was also the fist Exposition open at night because of Edison’s light bulb invention. I also ran across a well written message that Edison left in the Eiffel Tower Guest Book on September 10, 1889  giving “props” to Eiffel… you can tell Edison was impressed with this structure and this is a guy who invented the light bulb, motion picture camera, and holds over 1,000 other patents.

“To Eiffel the Engineer the brave builder of so gigantic and original specimen of modern Engineering from one who has the greatest respect and admiration for all Engineers including the Great Engineer the Bon Dieu, Thomas Edison.”

Edison also captured some incredible motion picture footage in 1900 of the Eiffel Tower with his other invention the Motion Picture Camera.

It is said that the souvenir postcard was also invented during this Exposition. Visitors could purchase and send postcards from the base of the tower.

Sources:
French Wikipedia
Library of Congress
The History of World Expositions

Note:  The copyright on these photos have expired and are public domain.

Tags: Eiffel Tower

This entry was posted on Monday, January 19th, 2009 at 4:50 pm and is filed under Featured Projects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.