The topic that I choose for this assignment is the structure of the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower is located in Paris and was built in 1887 and finished in 1889. The tower provided a dramatic symbol for the exposition and elevators to make it possible for fairgoers to have fabulous view of Paris. .
Gustave Eiffel set out to design a pleasing structure and was disguised the underlying modern grid frame on which the work is engineered with sweeping curves and dramatic proportions. The design was the winning entry from 700 submissions in a competition to design a temporary structure for the Paris Universal Exposition of 1889. .
Various pamphlets and articles were published throughout the year of 1886, then on February 14 1887, with the construction work barely begun, there appeared the Artists' Protest. The "Protest against the Tower of Monsieur Eiffel", published in the newspaper Le Temps, is addressed to the World's Fair's director of works, Monsieur Alphand.
The assembly of the supports began on July 1 1887, and was completed twenty-two months later. Between 150 and 300 workers on the building site, led by a team of veterans of the great metal viaduct projects, were responsible for assembling this gigantic set. It only took five months to build the foundations and twenty-one to finish assembling the metal pieces of the Tower. .
Equipping the Tower with elevators able to carry many people in perfect safety posed a difficult technical problem. Nobody had ever built a tower so high to climb and under such conditions. All the original elevators have now been replaced. The elevators installed in the East and West legs by the French company Roux, Combaluzier and Lepape,went up to the first level.They were driven by a double looped chain, powered by hydraulics.
Being made of iron, the Tower has been protected from oxidation by several layers of paint, which ensure that it will last for ever. The Tower has been repainted seventeen times since it was built, an average of once every seven years.
