Maintenace of the Eiffel Tower, Paris, France

Every seven years the Eiffel Tower gets re-painted to protect it from rust. Every nut, bolt, beam and crevice is painted by hand. It takes a team of 25 painters requiring 50 kilometers (31 miles) of climbing rope working full time over 18 months to complete the painting of the tower as the painters still work with small, circular brushes, as they did in 1889, instead of modern sprayers or paint-rollers.

When the tower is finished they will have applied an estimated 60 metric tonnes of patented, signature "Eiffel Tower brown," paint.

The complete job will cost an estimated total of 4 million euros (2009).

In order to maintain a uniform appearance to an observer on the ground, three separate colors of paint are used, with the darkest on the top and the lightest at the bottom. On occasion the colour of the paint has changed. The tower has in the past been painted red, orange and yellow, but has maintained its signature brown color, which overseers say best accents the Paris skyline, since 1968.

In the seven years between paintings, they say, about 55 tons of paint erodes.

But the re-painting is not the only maintenance that is preformed on the Eiffel tower. There are 360 spotlights illuminating the tower as well as 20,000 mini-flashbulbs that make the tower “sparkle” every hour on the hour throughout the night.
It takes a specially trained pair of technicians using mountain climbing gear to scale the iron crossbeams. They are fastened by nylon climbing cords to the structure at all times, with their tools strapped to their belts to prevent the tools from accidentally falling or becoming snagged in the tower. It can take upwards of an hour to replace a single bulb.

Currently the one of the original elevators, installed in 1899 ten years after the tower was built by Gustave Eiffel, is undergoing an extensive re-fab. Each piece of equipment on the hydraulic motor is being duplicated. With each original gear, wheel and screw being copied and re-cast in foundries in both France and Germany for a cost of over 28 million euros (2009).

Hours of Operation and Rate 2013

The Eiffel Tower is open every day from 9.30 a.m. to 11.45 p.m. (from 9 a.m. to 12.45 p.m. during the summer months). The last entrance tickets are sold 45 minutes before the monument closes.
The last ascent to the top of the tower departs at 10.30 p.m. (11.00 during the summer), except where the tower is closed early because of large numbers of visitors.
Measures for clearing the floors begin between 30 and 45 minutes before closing.
These times may be changed without prior notice by the management, in particular because of unusual occurrences, unfavourable weather conditions, or a large numbers of visitors.

Elevator entrance tickets
(to second floor)
Adults 8.50 € Youths (12 – 24) 7.00 € Children (4 – 11) +Handicapped 4.00 €
Elevator entrance tickets to top floor
Adults 14.00 € Youths (12 – 24) 12.50 € Children (4 – 11) +Handicapped 9.50 €
Stair entrance tickets(to second floor)
Adults 4.50 € Youths (12 – 24) 3.50 € Children (4 – 11) +Handicapped 3.00 €
Children under 4 are free guests at the Eiffel Tower.
All accompanying persons pay the full adult fee.

A petit histoire of the Eiffel Tower’s checkered past………

In 1925, France had recovered from World War I, and Paris was booming, an excellent environment for a con artist.
One such con, considered one of the greatest cons of all time, was the “sale” of the Eiffel Tower by Victor Lustig.

Victor Lustig was a Czech con artist who had undertaken different scams in various countries but became best known as "the man who sold the Eiffel Tower".

Lustig's master con came to him one spring day when he was reading a newspaper. An article discussed the problems the city was having maintaining the Eiffel Tower. Even keeping it painted was an expensive chore, and the tower was becoming somewhat run down. Lustig saw the possibilities behind this article and developed a remarkable scheme.

Lustig had a forger produce fake government stationery for him and invited six scrap metal dealers to a confidential meeting at the Hotel de Crillon, one of the most prestigious of the old Paris hotels, to discuss a possible business deal. All six attended the meeting. There, Lustig introduced himself as the deputy director-general of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs. He explained that they had been selected on the basis of their good reputations as honest businessmen.

Lustig told the group that the upkeep on the Eiffel Tower was so outrageous that the city could not maintain it any longer, and wanted to sell it for scrap. Due to the certain public outcry, he went on, the matter was to be kept secret until all the details were thought out. Lustig said that he had been given the responsibility to select the dealer to carry out the task. The idea was not as implausible in 1925 as it would be today. Ironically when the Eiffel tower was built it was met with much criticism from the public with many calling it an eyesore. Newspapers of the day were filled with angry letters from the arts community of Paris. The Eiffel Tower had been built for the 1889 Paris Exposition, and was not intended to be permanent. It was to have been taken down in 1909 and moved somewhere else. Therefore seen as a temporary eyesore and not fitting with the city's other great monuments like Notre Dame or the Louvre, the Eiffel tower was becoming to be in rather poor condition and thus it was quite believable that the city was interested in selling it as scrap.

Lustig took the men to the tower in a rented limousine for an inspection tour. It gave Lustig the opportunity to gauge which of them was the most enthusiastic and gullible. Lustig asked for bids to be submitted the next day, and reminded them that the matter was a state secret. In reality, Lustig already knew he would accept the bid from one dealer, Andre Poisson. Poisson was insecure, feeling he was not in the inner circles of the Parisian business community, and thought that obtaining the Eiffel Tower deal would put him in the big league.

However, Poisson's wife was suspicious, wondering who this official was, why everything was so secret, and why everything was being done so quickly. To deal with her suspicion, Lustig arranged another meeting, and then "confessed". As a government minister, Lustig said, he did not make enough money to pursue the lifestyle he enjoyed, and needed to find ways to supplement his income. This meant that his dealings needed a certain discretion. Poisson understood immediately. He was dealing with another corrupt government official who wanted a bribe. That put Poisson's mind at rest immediately, since he was familiar with the type and had no problems dealing with such people.

So Lustig not only received the funds for the Eiffel Tower, he also collected a large bribe. Surprisingly when the con was reviled, nothing happened. Poisson was too humiliated to complain to the police. A month later, Lustig returned to Paris, selected six more scrap dealers, and tried to sell the Tower once more. This time, the chosen victim went to the police before Lustig could close the deal, but Lustig managed to evade arrest.

So the tower has gone from being an eyesore and sold as scrap to one of the most iconic symbols of France and is visited upwards of 18,000 people per day.

Hours of Operation and Rates 2013

The Eiffel Tower is open every day from 9.30 a.m. to 11.45 p.m. (from 9 a.m. to 12.45 p.m. during the summer months). The last entrance tickets are sold 45 minutes before the monument closes.
The last ascent to the top of the tower departs at 10.30 p.m. (11.00 during the summer), except where the tower is closed early because of large numbers of visitors.
Measures for clearing the floors begin between 30 and 45 minutes before closing.
These times may be changed without prior notice by the management, in particular because of unusual occurrences, unfavourable weather conditions, or a large numbers of visitors.


Elevator entrance tickets
(to second floor)
Adults 8.50 € Youths (12 – 24) 7.00 € Children (4 – 11) +Handicapped 4.00 €
Elevator entrance tickets to top floor
Adults 14.00 € Youths (12 – 24) 12.50 € Children (4 – 11) +Handicapped 9.50 €
Stair entrance tickets(to second floor)
Adults 4.50 € Youths (12 – 24) 3.50 € Children (4 – 11) +Handicapped 3.00 €
Children under 4 are free guests at the Eiffel Tower.
All accompanying persons pay the full adult fee.

The Eiffel Tower, Paris, France

The Eiffel Tower on the Champ de Mars beside the Seine River in Paris has become a global icon of France. It is one of the most recognizable structures in the world.
Ironically the tower was met with much public criticism when it was built, with many calling it an eyesore. Newspapers of the day, were filled with angry letters from the arts community of Paris. One letter states “And during twenty years [the length of time of the original permit] we shall see, stretching over the entire city, still thrilling with the genius of so many centuries, stretching out like a black blot the odious shadow of the odious column built up of riveted iron plates.” Signers of this letter included Messonier, Gounod, Garnier, Gerome, Bougeureau, and Dumas.
Novelist Guy de Maupassant — who claimed to hate the tower — supposedly ate lunch in the Tower's restaurant every day. When asked why, he answered that it was the one place in Paris where one could not see the structure.

Named after its designer, engineer Gustave Eiffel, the Eiffel Tower is the tallest building in Paris. Including the 24 m (79 ft) antenna, the structure is 324 m (1,063 ft) high, which is equivalent to about 81 levels in a conventional building.

The structure was built between 1887 and 1889 as the entrance arch for the Exposition Universelle, a World's Fair marking the centennial celebration of the French Revolution. Eiffel originally planned to build the tower in Barcelona, for the Universal Exposition of 1888, but those responsible at the Barcelona city hall thought it was a strange and expensive construction, which did not fit into the design of the city. After the refusal of the Consistory of Barcelona, Eiffel submitted his draft to those responsible for the Universal Exhibition in Paris, where he would build his tower a year later, in 1889. The tower was inaugurated on 31 March 1889, and opened on 6 May. In that time three hundred workers joined together 18,038 pieces of iron, using two and a half million rivets.

Eiffel had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years, meaning it would have had to be dismantled in 1909, when its ownership would revert to the City of Paris. The City had planned to tear it down (part of the original contest rules for designing a tower was that it could be easily demolished) but as the tower proved valuable for communication purposes, it was allowed to remain after the expiration of the permit.

At the time the tower was built many people were shocked by its daring shape. Eiffel was criticized for the design and accused of trying to create something artistic, or inartistic according to the viewer, without regard to engineering. Eiffel and his engineers, understood the importance of wind forces and knew that if they were going to build the tallest structure in the world they had to be certain it would withstand the wind. In an interview reported in the newspaper Le Temps, Eiffel said:
“Now to what phenomenon did I give primary concern in designing the Tower? It was wind resistance. Well then! I hold that the curvature of the monument's four outer edges, which is as mathematical calculation dictated it should be (...) will give a great impression of strength and beauty, for it will reveal to the eyes of the observer the boldness of the design as a whole.”—translated from the French newspaper Le Temps of 14 February 1887

The shape of the tower was therefore determined by mathematical calculation involving wind resistance and as such the tower only sways 6–7 cm (2–3 in) in the wind whereas, depending on the ambient temperature, the top of the tower may shift away from the sun by up to 18 cm (7 in) on hot summer days.

Regardless of how the structure was designed and constructed today the Eiffel Tower is widely considered to be a striking piece of structural art and the iconic symbol of France.

Hours of Operation and Rate 2013

The Eiffel Tower is open every day from 9.30 a.m. to 11.45 p.m. (from 9 a.m. to 12.45 p.m. during the summer months). The last entrance tickets are sold 45 minutes before the monument closes.

The last ascent to the top of the tower departs at 10.30 p.m. (11.00 during the summer), except where the tower is closed early because of large numbers of visitors.

Measures for clearing the floors begin between 30 and 45 minutes before closing.

These times may be changed without prior notice by the management, in particular because of unusual occurrences, unfavourable weather conditions, or a large numbers of visitors.

Elevator entrance tickets

(to second floor)

Adults 8.50 €              Youths (12 – 24) 7.00 €                     Children (4 – 11) +Handicapped 4.00 €

Elevator entrance tickets to top floor

Adults 14.00 €            Youths (12 – 24) 12.50 €                   Children (4 – 11) +Handicapped 9.50 €

Stair entrance tickets(to second floor)

Adults 4.50 €              Youths (12 – 24) 3.50 €                     Children (4 – 11) +Handicapped 3.00 €

Children under 4 are free guests at the Eiffel Tower.

All accompanying persons pay the full adult fee.