The Eiffel Tower

The city of love.
The city of lights.
A bustling tourist attraction, known for it's lovely scenery, exquiste food and, let's say... "interesting" people.
And in the heart of it all, stands a 324 metre lumbering mass of architechtural brilliance. Probably one of the most iconic World Heritage Sites there is.
Of course, I’m talking about the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.
It is, what is considered to be he greatest work of French bridge builder, architect and metals expert, Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel. Rightfully so, since this archetectchiral wonder attracts more visitors than any other paid tourist attraction in the world.
In 1889, Paris hosted an Exposition Universelle   or “World’s Fair”   to mark the 100-year anniversary of the French Revolution . Over 100 plans were submitted for a monument to be built on the Champ-de-Mars, located in central Paris, and serve as the exposition’s entrance. The commission was finally granted to Eiffel et Compagnie, a consulting and construction firm owned by none other than our dear Mr. Eiffel.
Even though Mr. Eiffel recieves full credit for designing the Eiffel Tower, it was actually a structural engineer, by the name of Maurice Koechlin who came up with the initial concept and later helped refine it. Apparently Mr. Eiffel rejected poor Maurice’s original plan, instructing him to refine it with a more ornate design.
A few years later though, the very same pair also worked to design the Statue of Liberty’s base structure.
The final design required over 18 000 pieces of puddle iron and more than 2.5 million rivets to construct(!)
Temperature also alters the height of the Eiffel Tower by up to 15 centimetres.
The tower sways around six to seven centimetres in the wind.
It also houses over 20 000 light bulbs.
And all this amounted to one of the world’s greates architechtural masterpieces.
In 2008 a woman with an objects fetish married the Eiffel Tower, changing her name to Erika La Tour Eiffel in honour of her ‘partner’....