The Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower - lace made of metal
Let me at the beginning of this story, about this, indeed, a great building, one of the modern wonders of the world, to share with you some facts. I am sure, after understanding and comprehension of the statistical information, you will be even more amazed by the grandeur and importance of this facility in France and around the world as a whole.
Full height of the Eiffel Tower with all kinds of antennas for today is 324 meters. At the time of completion and the next 40 years, until 1930 it was the tallest building in the world. It has three sites available for visitors, at an altitude of 57, 115 and 276 meters respectively. Prior to the second level is quite a wide staircase of 1792 steps.

The total weight of 12 000 metal parts that make up the "Iron Lady" of 7300 tons. All of them are firmly connected to this amazing structure with 2.5 million rivets.
Despite the impressive size, it is not particularly affected by the wind, with the strongest storm of the tip structure may deviate by 12 see the sun even stronger effect on the tower, heating one side, the metal expands and it can bend to the side to 18 cm
Every 7 years the Eiffel Tower, in order to protect against corrosion, is required to re-paint. It takes about 57 tons of paint, the color of which from the time of construction ranging from yellow to reddish-brown.

In the entire history of the Eiffel Tower on it was visited by more than 240 million people (more than 6 million annually), making it the most visited tourist attraction in the world.
First lighting of the tower, consisting of 10 thousand gas lamps, the lighthouse at the top and two lights, lit up on the day of its opening. In 1900, there were electric lights. A celebration for the new millennium, she broke a necklace of 20 thousand light bulbs, and liked it so much to residents and visitors to the city that now, at the beginning of each hour, "openwork boom" in 10 minutes, it shines a light flickers and splendor.
The Eiffel Tower was built in record time to time, for 26 months and this includes excavation and the creation of the foundation. The solemn opening took place on March 31, 1889, a month ahead of schedule. Actually, the entire project was timed to coincide with the opening of the World Exhibitions in Paris and was to appear as the entrance arch on the way to the studios. Construction, considered at that time quite strange, there has been a runaway success. For the six months show the Eiffel Tower, more than 2 million people and by the end of the first year was offset almost all of the construction costs.
     
In agreement with Eiffel, "Iron lady" had to dismantle 20 years after the end of the exhibition. But from the early days of construction, he had many enemies, especially in the face of Parisian intellectuals. Famous writers and artists have written protests to the city hall and demanded to dismantle this "factory chimney", the "skeleton of iron and bolts" dominates the town.

In fact, indeed, the silhouette of the Eiffel Tower Industrial little in harmony with a long history of Paris. But if you try to separate the image of the great buildings of the beautiful and stylish architecture of the capital of France, we see all the charm and beauty of this "amazing lace made of metal."
Over time, the passion slowly subsided, his eyes became accustomed to see towering over Paris' hated shadow of the column, "but after a while, those who do not like the construction resigned and ceased to be indignant.
Today you can hardly find someone who would not like a work of art, top engineering at the time. The Eiffel Tower has become the most recognizable symbol of Paris, to visit her dream of millions of people. I think every traveler, being in Paris, consider it his duty to visit this beautiful, panoramic view of Paris from the heights of the great miracle of technology.

In this video, panoramic view of Paris from the highest observation deck of the Eiffel Tower. First, in front of us the world of exhibitions halls, and then the Arc de Triomphe, etc., in order: Museum d'Orsay, Les Invalides, Champ de Mars, and then again pavilions and Le Défense quarter away.