The Eiffel Tower - Essay Example

Eiffel Tower Introduction Eiffel Tower is a tower made up of iron lattice and is regarded as Eiffel Tower after the creator of the tower whose name was Gustave Eiffel, the tower was created during 1889 by the company led by Gustave Eiffel (Sacramento State, 2012). It is recognized as a symbol of France and is one of the most renowned structures that exist throughout the world and its height is higher than any other structure created throughout Paris and is even recognized for attracting highest number of visitors who pay to have an experience of the tower. According to the data of 2011, the tower was visited by 7.1 million individuals from different parts of the world. Since its inception it has been visited by over 250 million individuals as r3ecorded during 2010. Body The Eiffel tower experienced certain amount of issues when it came into existence, it was criticized on the basis of arts and by those who believed that creating such a monument was not feasible. These objections were a result of a heated up debate between the linkage of art work and engineering. The criticism heightened up as the operations for the tower started at the Champ de Mars, to object the creation of this tower a total of 300 individuals formed a committee and the leader of the committee was renowned architect named Charles Garnier. The committee included other prominent figures such as Guy de Maupassant, Jules Massenet and others (Yapp 49). The committee signed a petition and forwarded the petition to minister who was responsible for Works and to the commissioner of Exposition. Later the petition was made public through Le Temps. In the petition, the committee stated that the tower was a hideous mark on the face of France. In response to the petition Gustave Eiffel stated that his tower was similar to the pyramids located in Egypt and believed that the tower will be of equal importance as the pyramids of Egypt. Later a response o these criticisms was provided by Edouard Lockroy stating that it would be a waste of resources as the idea of the project was under construction and the idea was approved several months before the protest. Later those who protested accepted the tower and the tower was made, there were a few who were still against the existence of the tower. The Eiffel tower has a complete list of interesting facts associated to it; the list is so huge that it might take months to go through the entire list. When the tower came into existence, it was regarded as the highest tower throughout the planet, later it lost its recognition to the skyscraper named as Chrysler in 1930, if the needle placed above the tower is added to the calculation of its height, the tower will be able to beat the height statistics of Chrysler tower (Douglas 110). The tower is colored in three different shades, the lower part of the tower is colored in a very bright shade and the upper part of the tower is covered with a light colored shade and after every seven years, it is repainted in order to safeguard the tower against decay. When the tower was being created the designer and the developer of the tower, Gustave Eiffel carved a total of 72 names of the well renowned individuals from the field of science, engineering and mathematics of France on it. During the period of 1925 to 1934 an automobile company named Citroen utilized the tower to advertise itself and used the tower as a billboard and was the hugest advertising campaign launched during that period. During the period of 1909, the tower was being demolished but the tower was able to survive as it was used for the purpose of tower of telecommunication in France. The main purpose of building the tower was to inform individuals that ion can be used as a building material in replacement of stone is equally strong to stone buildings and is much lighter in weight as compared to stone. Several vendors and researchers have proposed to make changes to the Eiffel tower and to use the tower for the wellbeing of the society, these proposals are either being scrutinized or have been rejected by the authorities. CNN reports that an organization related to the field of engineering has proposed to cover the Eiffel tower with over 0.6 million plants, the company named Ginger states that this activity will cost over $97 million and will assist in purification of the environment and will delete over 87.8 tons of produced carbon dioxide from the environment of Paris (Webster, 2011). During the celebrations of 2001, over 20000 electric bulbs were applied to Eiffel tower and these light bulbs have been there since the show of 2001. People were amazed by the glowing sight of the Eiffel tower and since that day to 2008 the bulbs are turned on for 10 minutes to attract the attention of the tourists. During 2008, the government decided to decrease the turn on time of the Eiffel tower bulbs from ten minutes to five minutes in order to save and conserve energy. This action decreased the amount of energy consumed by the light bulbs of Eiffel tower from 400 hours to 200 hours each year. The government has taken this step to prove that they are very serious about conserving energy and for this purpose they have taken various steps in regards to Eiffel tower. Conclusion Eiffel tower came into existence during 1889 under the supervision and hard work of the engineering company led by Gustave Eiffel and the tower was named Eiffel because of the founder of the tower. The tower was initially criticized by artists, but later the tower was eventually built and liked by all critics. Eifel tower has a huge history and significant historical moments are associated with the tower, several proposals for the future of the Eiffel tower have been proposed and these proposals are being scrutinized for the wellbeing of the society. Works Cited "La Tour Eiffel * Paris, France * Gustave Eiffel * 1889." Sacramento State. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Dec. 2012. . Douglas, George H.. Skyscrapers: a social history of the very tall building in America. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 2004. Print. Webster, George. "Could Eiffel Tower become world's largest tree? - CNN.com." CNN.com International - Breaking, World, Business, Sports, Entertainment and Video News. N.p., 14 Dec. 2011. Web. 3 Dec. 2012. . Yapp, Nicholas, Douglas Brinkley, and Chris Johns. 100 days in photographs: pivotal events that changed the world. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic and Getty Images, 2007. Print. . Read More