Eiffel Tower: Building the Impossible
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00:00A majestic presence has towered over Paris for more than a hundred and thirty years.
00:10A symbol of progress and of breaking boundaries, France's Iron Lady is a global icon.
00:23In 1889, Gustave Eiffel achieved the impossible, the dream of every engineer, to build the
00:36tallest tower in the world.
00:43In the heart of Paris, he raised this 7,300-ton iron colossus in just two years, two months
00:50and five days.
00:53But this tower could not have existed without the engineering innovations of the three preceding
00:58decades, and Gustave Eiffel's other work, found all over the world.
01:05From the bridges of Vietnam to the sweeping Galibi Viaduct, Bordeaux's rivers to the secrets
01:10of New York's Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower is the crowning glory of a life spent
01:16pushing back limits.
01:19What challenges, both human and technical, did Eiffel and his engineers face with such
01:24a massive project?
01:26And how did his scientific research help Eiffel save the tower from destruction?
01:35This is the epic story of France's Iron Lady.
01:49On the 31st of March, 1889, Gustave Eiffel refused to allow anyone else to unfurl the
01:57French flag at the top of his tower.
02:03Aged nearly 60, he faced the ever-changing winds of an icy winter to mark the completion
02:09of his greatest masterpiece, 300 metres over Paris.
02:23The Eiffel Tower was born out of the Industrial Revolution, the age of iron and coal.
02:31The plentiful supply of coal in Great Britain, where everything started at the end of the
02:3618th century, changed the world, along with revolutionary inventions like the steam engine,
02:43the railway and the steel industry.
02:47One foundation technology of the Industrial Revolution was a type of wrought iron called
02:53puddled iron.
02:55Strong yet flexible, it was obtained by melting iron ore and introducing oxygen until it was
03:00decarbonised.
03:03In the 1850s, the production of puddled iron boomed with the mechanisation of the blast
03:09furnace.
03:11In France, a flurry of forges and metal construction companies emerged.
03:18One of these firms was founded in 1864 by the 32-year-old engineer Gustave Eiffel.
03:25Eiffel composed his own grammar of construction by using techniques whose main elements
03:34were the sawmill and the St Andrew's cross, all of which were assembled by derivatives.
03:40This allowed him to have lighter, more up-to-date constructions.
03:46These techniques allowed him to quickly build works that broke records in length,
03:53height and range, and this is what allowed him to set out to conquer the world.
04:01Since the beginning of the 19th century, architects had dreamed of exceeding the Gothic cathedrals
04:07and the Egyptian pyramids.
04:09Two projects for 300-metre high towers had emerged in England and the United States,
04:15but neither was completed.
04:18Two prominent engineers from the Eiffel Company, Émile Nouguier and Maurice Coeplin, were
04:24also tempted by the idea of building a 300-metre tower.
04:30But how to go about it?
04:34Using the hallmark iron construction techniques of the Eiffel Company, Coeplin and Nouguier
04:39came up with a pylon design.
04:44Coeplin was not impressed.
04:49For art historian Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby, the yearning for the gigantic fits the historical
04:55context of the 19th century.
04:59Rise of capitalism, rise of empire, rise of nationalist rivalries, all of that feeds the
05:07kind of competition to prove one's modernity, efficiency, capacity, to astonish people with
05:19the surprises of things like the Eiffel Tower.
05:26It was the in-house architect Stéphane Sauvestre who won Eiffel over to the project, gracing
05:33the pylon with decorative arches and adding platforms to welcome the public.
05:39He transformed the unattractive pylon into an elegant monument.
05:48Eiffel saw that a revolutionary tower could be the main attraction of the 1889 World's
05:54Fair in Paris and committed himself to the project.
06:00A fabulous 300-metre iron tower from which people could admire the city of Paris.
06:08The Eiffel Tower project was born.
06:14The tower would be higher than Notre Dame, the pyramids of Egypt and almost twice as
06:19high as the Washington Monument, which held the world record at 169 metres.
06:26He feared that at 300 metres the wind would be destructive.
06:30How would the engineers ensure that their tower could withstand high winds?
06:39Gustave Eiffel built this facility in Paris towards the end of his life, an aerodynamics
06:44laboratory which is still in use.
06:47This is where Benoit Romand, an expert in structural mechanics, is comparing the effect
06:52of wind on models of the Eiffel Tower and a tower with straight sides.
07:17Why is the Eiffel Tower model much better at resisting wind than the other model?
07:48One of Eiffel's most impressive earlier achievements is this magnificent railway
08:03bridge in Auvergne in central France.
08:08The Gowerby Viaduct was opened in 1884, just as the project for the Eiffel Tower was being
08:14conceived.
08:21Standing 120 metres above the Trouillet River, it connects the two sides of the valley with
08:27a parabolic arch of unprecedented length.
08:32165 metres, a record for the time.
08:38Patricia Verne Rocher is an expert in the history of the bridge.
08:43The metallic structure is a fabulous web-like arrangement of iron beams.
09:02For Eiffel and his engineers, every bridge was a chance to introduce technical improvements.
09:10A parabolic shape would be better able to resist the forces produced by heavy trains.
09:16The organisational expertise needed on site testifies to the technical know-how and talent
09:23of Eiffel's company.
09:31The bridge was designed for innovative port-a-faux launching, which consists of building the
09:37arch and the platform from the banks.
09:41The central part of the bridge is supported by existing piles.
09:45A cable system then supports the two half-arches, which advance over the void to their junction
09:53120 metres above the river.
09:57There is an extreme precision in the construction of the pieces, as well as in the assembly,
10:01because the rivet holes must coincide exactly at the moment of the junction of the arch.
10:09Eiffel himself says that they arrived with an almost mathematical precision.
10:17The perfectly mastered completion of this civil engineering work, to worldwide admiration,
10:23was key to the success of the 300-metre tower project.
10:35With the Garaby Viaduct works behind them, the Eiffel team could now focus on building
10:41the highest monument in the world.
10:45In June 1884, Eiffel, Coquelin, Nouguier and Sauvestre exhibited a model at the Decorative
10:53Arts Exhibition.
11:01Building a needle in the heart of Paris caught the imagination of the French Minister of
11:07Trade, Edouard Leroy, who was looking for a revolutionary idea to boost the forthcoming
11:13World's Fair in 1889.
11:37What better choice than a record-breaking monument?
11:44The publicity for Paris and the very young Third Republic would be global.
11:52The 300-metre tower would be topped by a beacon.
11:59Like another monument intended to enlighten the world, which also owes a lot to Eiffel's genius.
12:14In 1879, Gustave Eiffel was involved in the construction of a remarkable work, Liberty
12:22Enlightening the World, which would later become the Statue of Liberty.
12:27The sculpture, by Auguste Bartholdi, was a gift from the Republic of France to the American
12:33people to mark the centenary of their independence.
12:38The tallest statue in the world at 92 metres, including its pedestal, was another artistic
12:44and technical challenge on an unprecedented scale.
13:07Gustave Eiffel and, in particular, Coquelin, who made the calculations, imagined an internal
13:13secondary skeleton, which, through a flexible bar, carried the fine copper skin that constitutes
13:19the statue.
13:21Rather than making it rigid at all costs, they preferred the flexibility, the strategy
13:27of the rose, in short, rather than that of the oak.
13:32The statue and its structure crossed the Atlantic in 210 special crates.
13:42Sighted at the entrance of New York Harbour, it would become an undisputed symbol of the city.
13:52It is 6am.
13:55Before opening to the 20,000 daily visitors, ranger Matthew Hoosh climbs up into the heart
14:02of the statue.
14:04This 162-step staircase gives an insight into Eiffel's structure.
14:11The similarities with the tower are clear.
14:15What's most impressive about the interior of the Statue of Liberty is how all of this
14:20stone and steel works together to hold her over 300 feet above New York Harbour.
14:27Over a hundred years of wind and rain, she still stands because of this interior structure.
14:36The inside of the Statue of Liberty can be a disorienting place.
14:42But what you're seeing are hundreds of copper plates, so that's the dark metal that you
14:48see all along the interior here, that's her skin.
14:52And those copper plates were all riveted together with thousands of little copper rivets.
14:58But the copper skin has to be held up, so we can see there are thousands of steel bars
15:03connect the copper plates to the secondary iron bars, and all of those iron bars connect
15:09back here to these iron pylons.
15:13The iron structure, designed by Eiffel's engineers, accommodates this staircase up
15:19to Miss Liberty's crown and its unique view of New York.
15:28This view became popular over time, and as visitors keep coming to the Statue of Liberty,
15:35the Statue of Liberty becomes the Statue of Liberty.
15:39She becomes an icon that represents not just New York City, but the United States herself.
15:46Thanks to its impressive structure, the Statue of Liberty has withstood the test of time.
15:53Since its inauguration in 1886, it has given New York a unique identity.
16:01Its universal appeal reflected on Gustav Eiffel.
16:08But despite this resounding success, his project for the 300-metre Paris Tower
16:14had stalled for lack of a firm government commitment.
16:20Fortunately, Gustav Eiffel was a shrewd businessman, winning orders in South America,
16:26Portugal, the Philippines and the French colonies of Indochina.
16:31The Eiffel Company could afford to wait out the bureaucratic delays of the French government.
16:40It is in Vietnam that Eiffel built the greatest number of structures.
16:44The Pont de Missagerie, in Ho Chi Minh City, is well known.
16:52But dozens of portable bridges, exported by Eiffel,
16:56to Vietnam, are now lost.
17:00The old city once boasted a hundred of them.
17:27The Vietnam War and rampant urbanisation
17:31have probably destroyed most of Eiffel's portable bridges.
17:35But after studying satellite images of the city,
17:38Bertrand Lemoine is convinced that some of them might still be in use.
17:57I said to myself, this bridge looks like an Eiffel bridge.
18:04It looks a bit like railway tracks.
18:07Yes, they are very simple elements.
18:09Corners, U-shapes, I-shapes,
18:12which are a basic element of metal construction
18:15and which allow to build these shapes with triangles,
18:18so they give a great rigidity to the bridge.
18:20Well, we can really confirm that this is a typical Eiffel bridge.
18:24It has five trusses, each about 24 metres long,
18:30so it's really extraordinary to find it here.
18:42Another bridge of the same type has been spotted.
18:54It's really a beautiful specimen of a so-called portable Eiffel bridge.
18:59Portable because you could carry the elements that were prefabricated,
19:04prefabricated with corners,
19:06assemblies made by rivets in Paris.
19:09And then these bolts, which are then assembled on site,
19:13to build the bridge.
19:14And we see this large-format mechanism,
19:17and this one, the bridge of the Ractum, still survives.
19:21140 years later.
19:24Eiffel will develop the invention of portable bridges
19:27around the time they build the Eiffel Tower.
19:29On the other hand, it's much simpler to build than the Eiffel Tower,
19:32but it's sold at the same price.
19:34So it's a real financial manoeuvre for the company
19:36because it will sell its bridges for export all over the world.
19:40So it's a simple invention,
19:42but in reality it will prove to be extremely lucrative for the Eiffel company.
19:47Back in Paris,
19:49Gustave Eiffel could count on the unfailing support
19:52of the French Minister of Trade.
19:55Edouard Leroy had launched a competition
19:58inviting submissions for the 1889 World's Fair.
20:02Among other projects,
20:04contestants shall study the possibility
20:06of erecting an iron tower on the Champs-de-Mars.
20:10It so happened that the specified demand
20:13were exactly those of Eiffel's design.
20:16Candidates only had 15 days to submit their designs.
20:44After months of struggle, Eiffel had won.
20:48He would have his tower, and he would finance it himself.
21:14At the company's headquarters in Le Valois, Paris,
21:18engineers and draftsmen feverishly started work.
21:22The World's Fair would open on 6 May 1889,
21:26giving them two years and two months to build the tower.
21:30The countdown had begun.
21:44Every part of the tower was calculated to one-tenth of a millimetre.
21:49More than 5,000 drawings were produced by this office.
21:557,300 tonnes of iron were ordered,
21:58and barely 20 days after the concession was signed,
22:02on 27 January 1887,
22:05the first earthworks began
22:07on the vast, cleared expanse of the Champs-de-Mars.
22:14Using shovels and pickaxes,
22:16400 workers laboured for nine hours a day
22:20to dig four huge holes.
22:22Rubble was disposed of in wheelbarrows,
22:25horse-drawn carts and mine carts.
22:28The four legs of the tower had to be anchored deep in the ground.
22:3231,000 cubic metres of earth,
22:35a volume equivalent to ten Olympic-sized swimming pools,
22:39were removed using rudimentary methods.
22:43This stage of the works was essential
22:46to ensure the stability of the tower.
23:14The first problem came two weeks after work started.
23:19Well-known artists published a petition against the Eiffel Tower.
23:24In the influential daily Le Temps, under editor Adrien Hébra,
23:29they protested against the erection of the useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower.
23:44Eiffel's counter-attack was scathing and inspired.
23:48Because we are engineers,
23:50do people think that we are not preoccupied by beauty in our constructions?
23:54And that although we build them sturdy and durable,
23:57we do not also strive to make them elegant?
24:04On site, the works were underway.
24:08The foundations on the banks of the Seine lay seven metres below river level,
24:13so could easily flood.
24:19How would Eiffel overcome this obstacle?
24:28He called on the know-how he'd acquired 30 years earlier in Bordeaux.
24:33When, as a young engineer, fresh out of the École Centrale,
24:36an elite engineering school,
24:38he led the construction of his first major iron structure,
24:42a 504-metre-long railway viaduct
24:45linking the two banks of the river Garonne,
24:48which is very wide at that point.
25:03This impressive structure almost disappeared
25:06when the modern bridge rendered it obsolete.
25:10Gustave Eiffel's descendant, Myriam Leonaudi Eiffel,
25:13helped save this iron masterpiece.
25:17It's the longest iron bridge ever built in France
25:21and still makes the Eiffel family proud.
25:47Eiffel's youthful leadership skills
25:50helped solve this major technical challenge.
26:17Digging riverbed foundations for the six pairs of bridge piers.
26:24How could anyone build such massive foundations
26:27ten metres underwater?
26:46The upper part of the riverbed is open-air.
26:49These piers are divided into three compartments.
26:52At the bottom, there's a pressurised chamber,
26:55constantly fed with compressed air,
26:58where the workers can work on dry feet.
27:02In the middle, there's a decompression tank,
27:05and at the top, there's an open-air part
27:08where you can evacuate the rubble.
27:11This innovative technique of air-compressed foundations
27:15will be crucial for the construction
27:18of the Eiffel Tower foundations.
27:21But when the compressed air chambers were used 30 years later
27:24to dig the tower's foundations near the Seine,
27:27workers in the pressurised section experienced problems.
27:32Since the beginning of the use of air-compressed caissons,
27:35workers have developed a new disease.
27:38Tickling, bleeding, difficulty breathing,
27:41partial paralysis of the limbs.
27:44No one understands where this disease comes from,
27:47nor the importance of the decompression layers
27:50when the workers go back up.
27:55Press reports led to a public outcry,
27:58and once again, Eiffel relied on Minister Lecroy
28:01to subdue this new protest.
28:04He summoned the press to the construction site.
28:07The Minister of Commerce decides in April 1887
28:10to go down to the foundations and come back alive.
28:17Work resumed immediately.
28:20Soon, solid foundations were ready to support the metal structure.
28:30The iron elements were cut, trimmed, adjusted and drilled
28:34to the exact measurements set out in the plans.
28:37Once on site, they had to fit together perfectly.
28:44The Eiffel construction method made it possible
28:47to build at an amazing pace.
29:00Six months after the start of construction,
29:03four 54 degree inclined pillars rose from the ground.
29:13There were very few workers on site, barely 250,
29:16but they were very efficient.
29:34They paid almost twice as much as the workers
29:37on other Paris construction sites at the same time.
29:45Progress was impressive, the metallic structure rising fast
29:48to the incessant beat of the riveter's hammers.
29:55But how were the parts assembled on the building site?
29:59In Gonesse, north of Paris,
30:02one business still employs the efficient riveting assembly process
30:05used by the Eiffel company.
30:14In this workshop, Eiffel-style beams are produced
30:17to restore old structures.
30:29Eiffel Tower
30:46At the time of the tower's construction,
30:49there were no pneumatic tools.
30:52Riveting was carried out on site by teams of four workers.
30:59The first makes the rivet white-hot in abrasive.
31:08The second positions it in the assembly hole.
31:11The third holds the rivet head,
31:14while the fourth hammers it in place.
31:19As it cools, the rivet contracts,
31:22holding the parts firmly together.
31:29A total of 2.5 million rivets were set on the Eiffel Tower,
31:33half of them on site,
31:36sometimes in highly acrobatic and even dangerous conditions.
31:41No lives were lost during the main construction phase of the project,
31:44but one Italian worker, Angelo Scagliotti,
31:47died shortly after the tower's inauguration.
31:51As the structure grew, so did the challenges.
31:54How do you lift thousands of tonnes of iron
31:57to heights of 100, 200 and then 300 metres?
32:03Eiffel came up with a solution
32:06using mobile steam cranes in each of the tower's legs.
32:11The greatest challenge facing the engineers
32:14was securing horizontal beams to the four main beams.
32:20They needed four inclined legs to create a first-floor platform.
32:28The position of the four 700-tonne pillars
32:31had to be millimetre perfect.
32:50In order to be able to lift the steel beams slightly
32:53and therefore to catch the play
32:56that could occur at the junction of these.
33:00In addition, sand boxes were placed
33:03between the scaffolding and the steel beams,
33:06and to tilt one of these,
33:09it was enough to open the box and empty the sand inside.
33:12By combining sand boxes and hydraulic cranes,
33:15we could very precisely adjust
33:18the previously drilled rivet holes
33:21in the beams and in the steel beams
33:24and thus facilitate the assembly of the first floor.
33:41The tower was standing by itself.
33:44They had done it.
33:48To Eiffel's great relief,
33:51the complex operation was complete.
34:03But January 1888 was a hard month.
34:06Winter slowed down their progress
34:09and the second and third levels were still to be built.
34:13Another 250 metres were required
34:16to reach the magical 300-metre height.
34:20With only 15 months left, time was running out.
34:28That same year, another ambitious engineering project
34:31was making headlines in Paris.
34:34There was bad news from Panama,
34:37where French entrepreneur Ferdinand de Lesseps
34:40was digging a canal without locks
34:43to reconnect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
34:49Disaster upon disaster
34:52had left it considerably behind schedule.
35:13There was a meeting of experts
35:16organised by de Lesseps.
35:19De Lesseps had tricked the meeting
35:22so that the vast majority of experts
35:25would say that the level of the canal was favourable.
35:28While Eiffel, with a very small number of other experts,
35:31said that it was impossible
35:34and that a canal had to be built in Écluse.
35:43Ferdinand de Lesseps, who again I emphasise was not an engineer,
35:46was such a failure
35:49and entailed such loss of life
35:52and as people, you know,
35:55it entailed trying to cut through a mountain
35:58and that mountain kept having mudslides.
36:01It was a disaster.
36:07Finally, and one billion gold francs later,
36:10the Lesseps version of the canal without locks
36:13had to be abandoned
36:16and the Panama Interoceanic Company, the pride of France,
36:19funded by thousands of small investors,
36:22had to be salvaged.
36:28Many saw Eiffel as the man
36:31to turn this disaster into a triumph.
36:34Boosted by progress on the tower,
36:37he began the gigantic civil engineering project of his times.
36:45For the astronomical amount of 100 million francs,
36:48more than 15 times the Eiffel Tower's construction cost,
36:51he was contracted to build 10 giant canal locks.
36:57He agrees to make those locks
37:00at a great cost to Lesseps.
37:03Eiffel will reap great rewards
37:07and he needs those, I believe, to build the Eiffel Tower.
37:12I believe that the Panama Canal project
37:15is partly funding the Eiffel Tower itself.
37:24Eiffel had to take charge of the construction site,
37:27direct the gigantic earthworks,
37:30manufacture 20 enormous lock gates of his own design,
37:36then ship them to Panama
37:39and deliver the work all before the concession expired in 1890.
37:46He now had two races against the clock.
38:07The Eiffel Company was working at full capacity.
38:13On 4 July 1888,
38:16a party was in full swing on the tower's first level.
38:22Gustav Eiffel had organised a banquet
38:25to celebrate American Independence Day.
38:28The first level of the tower
38:31was decked out in the colours of the two nations.
38:37In the middle, a table had been set up to welcome the press.
38:42Over 40 journalists and foreign correspondents
38:45had made the ascent to the first floor.
38:55But six months before the scheduled completion date,
38:58the site's machinery ground to a halt.
39:01On 19 September 1888,
39:04most of the workers went on strike.
39:35Of the 140 riveters, fitters and carpenters,
39:38only 27 showed up for work.
39:41Construction couldn't continue.
39:46Eiffel quickly did the calculations.
39:49The tower might not be completed in time for the world's fair.
39:55He met their demands.
40:00By November 1888,
40:03Eiffel and his team were all smiles again.
40:06The tower had become the tallest building on Earth,
40:09170 metres,
40:12one metre higher than the Washington Monument's stone obelisk.
40:18Progress would now be faster.
40:21The structure was thinner and required fewer parts.
40:26One metre was being added every day.
40:30By 15 March 1889,
40:33the third level was almost complete.
40:36But there was still the paintwork to finish
40:39and the lifts to install,
40:42which was turning into a major headache.
40:45The tower's lifts,
40:48a crucial part of the visitor experience,
40:51represented a technological leap forward.
40:54Transporting the public to a height of 300 metres
40:57was a new challenge,
41:00and new machinery had to be invented to meet it.
41:04Stéphane Rosec is in charge of the lifts.
41:09His workplace is worthy of a novel by Jules Verne.
41:13The key to producing the energy needed
41:16to raise the lifts to the first and then the second level
41:19is hydraulic pressure.
41:27The vertical shaft is the lift's counterweight.
41:30Inside the shaft is water,
41:33and outside the shaft, in the yellow part,
41:36is 180 tonnes of gas.
41:39This weight will exert a force
41:42that will create a pressure of 42 bar on the water.
41:47This hydraulic pressure
41:50pushes an imposing 16-metre-long jack.
41:53In turn, it drives a rail mounted on the lift.
41:57This rail is then connected to an elevated carriage,
42:00which operates a set of pulleys
42:03that raises the elevated car up to the second level.
42:06When the piston travels one metre,
42:09this system of pulley cables moves the cabin eight metres.
42:16But on 31 March 1889,
42:19the lifts were not ready,
42:22and Gustave Eiffel had to climb the stairs
42:25to the second level.
42:35A few daring climbers braved the heights to accompany him.
42:50This beautiful open structure
42:53was completed in record time.
42:56Well, almost.
43:01The lifts were not yet working
43:04and the paintwork was unfinished.
43:16The Eiffel Tower has received 19 coats of paint
43:19since its construction,
43:22one every seven years,
43:25as prescribed by Gustave Eiffel himself,
43:28to protect it from rust.
43:31From one painting campaign to the next,
43:34the tower's colours have changed.
43:37Very bright at the time of the World's Fair,
43:40they have since become much darker.
43:53The tower has been repainted 19 times.
43:56It is now time for a fresh coat.
43:59Pierre-Antoine Gattier is in charge.
44:22Gustave Eiffel respects this story
44:25of a painting every seven years.
44:28But this campaign is new
44:31because we were able to change the colour,
44:34to find the colours wanted by Gustave Eiffel.
44:39The yellow-brown paint is the same colour
44:42chosen by Eiffel in 1907
44:45when the tower acquired permanent status.
44:53The tower is repainted by rope access,
44:56using tools such as the mop,
44:59an angled brush similar to those
45:02originally used by the Eiffel Company workers.
45:22It takes several years to apply the 60 tonnes of paint
45:25to cover the surface of the tower
45:28using this technique.
45:47In Paris, after more than two years
45:50of dizzying construction work,
45:53the big day arrived.
45:56Parisians and visitors flocked into the city.
45:59On 6 May 1889, after a race against the clock,
46:02the French president, Sadi Carnot,
46:05opened the World's Fair with the utmost solemnity.
46:14The triumph of iron was complete.
46:21The World's Fair was then open to the public
46:24who arrived in droves,
46:27thanks in part to a railway line
46:30specially built for the occasion.
46:34Contrary to some of the artists' predictions,
46:37the sight was priceless.
46:50As soon as the tower was inaugurated,
46:53foreigners flocked,
46:56as did the English, the Americans and the Germans,
46:59who were France's sworn enemies,
47:02who had seen the tower with the wrong eye.
47:05They were all amazed by the grandeur of the tower.
47:13On the evening of 6 May 1889,
47:16there was a grand celebration.
47:21And the tower unveiled her lights for the first time.
47:29Boats on the Seine were festooned with lanterns.
47:32Orchestras played late into the night.
47:35The special day of inauguration
47:38ended with a suitably festive climax.
47:42The Universal Expo World's Fair
47:45was a huge success,
47:48attracting 32 million visitors
47:51between May and October 1889.
47:54Over the same period of time,
47:57Monsieur Eiffel's tower,
48:00the undisputed star of the fair,
48:03sold over 2 million tickets,
48:06a resounding success.
48:11The Eiffel Tower sold 6 million tickets
48:14during the only duration of the exhibition,
48:17in 1889,
48:20which was slightly higher
48:23than Eiffel had predicted.
48:26So it was a win-win situation.
48:33But despite Eiffel's star shining so brightly,
48:36the year 1892 turned into a nightmare.
48:42He was caught up in an enormous scandal
48:45that shook French society.
48:48The bankruptcy of the company
48:51that built the Panama Canal,
48:54headed by the famous Charles de Lesseps.
48:57Thousands of small investors were ruined.
49:00Some committed suicide.
49:03The scandal revealed the corruption
49:06of members of Parliament from every party.
49:10He was accused of being a party leader.
49:13That is, he acted as if he were
49:16an administrator of the company.
49:19So he obviously defends himself,
49:22he has never been an administrator,
49:25but in reality, given the enormity
49:28of the task he was entrusted with,
49:31we consider that he was the real
49:34Manitou, if I may say so,
49:37of the Panama Canal Company.
49:43On 10 January, after a two-year investigation,
49:46the trial of the directors
49:49of the Panama Interoceanic Company
49:52opened in Paris.
49:55Facing the judges at the Higher Appeals Court,
49:58the defendants include Charles de Lesseps,
50:01along with his father Ferdinand de Lesseps,
50:05two other company directors and Eiffel.
50:13They had to answer charges of complicity
50:16in fraud and breach of trust.
50:19At first, Eiffel was convinced
50:22he would be exonerated.
50:25But a month later, although defended
50:28by a brilliant lawyer, he was sentenced
50:31to 10 years in prison and fined 20,000 francs.
50:34He was discredited and his reputation shattered.
50:37For Eiffel, it was a humiliation.
51:01The tower was also going through a rough patch.
51:04Visitors were deserting it,
51:07and the scandal didn't help.
51:11What would become of the monument
51:14as the date approached for the World's Fair in 1900,
51:17also taking place in Paris?
51:21Transformation projects emerged,
51:24maliciously proposing to turn the tower
51:27into an improbable rock or a giant belfry
51:30by a clock or a kind of Mesopotamian ziggurat.
51:33Eiffel dismissed these projects
51:36as distortions of his tower.
51:40What he really wanted was to transform it
51:43into a palace of electricity.
51:46The investment would have been enormous,
51:49but the tower would essentially be preserved
51:52in its original form.
52:01The 1900 fair was much larger than that of 1889,
52:04and its centre was no longer on the Champs-de-Mars,
52:07but closer to Les Invalides
52:10and the Place de la Concorde,
52:13where a spectacular gateway had been placed.
52:19As a result, the tower found itself on the sidelines,
52:22and the modernisation work carried out
52:25to improve the lifts and install electricity
52:28was not enough to rekindle public interest.
52:53Once the 1900 World's Fair was over,
52:56ideas emerged to transform the Champs-de-Mars again,
52:59this time into a large park.
53:04Eiffel was worried.
53:07He looked for ways to preserve the tower
53:10and make it a lasting fixture in the Parisian landscape.
53:13It would be the last battle of his life.
53:17With his mind increasingly focused on science,
53:20he foresaw the importance of wireless radio,
53:23which required very high antennas.
53:26He understood the role the tower could play
53:29in the development of wireless telegraphy.
53:32In December 1903, he decided to turn to the army.
53:37His proposal received a cool reception at the ministry,
53:40except from a brilliant young engineer, Captain Ferrier,
53:44who was looking to develop wireless telegraphy.
53:48Ferrier obtained authorisation from the army
53:51to install a wireless station at the Eiffel Tower.
53:57Gustave Eiffel paid for Hutz
54:00to host a transmitter on the Champs-de-Mars.
54:03The tower was equipped with an extraordinary antenna
54:06made of four steel cables.
54:09This antenna was constantly evolving.
54:12The Iron Lady ended up being rigged with 360-metre cables.
54:16One year before its concession was due to end in 1909,
54:20it had become a strategic tool for national defence.
54:24The tower was saved from destruction
54:27and the concession was extended.
54:33It was a cold day in Paris when Gustave Eiffel died
54:37on 27 December 1923 at the age of 91,
54:42one year after the inauguration of Radio Tour Eiffel.
54:46Le Matin paid him tribute.
54:50A great Frenchman, whose name is famous the world over,
54:54has just died.
54:58Gustave had left his tower without a protector.
55:02A few years later, the Eiffel Tower lost its 41-year record
55:06as the world's poorest building.
55:10In quick succession, two New York skyscrapers overtook it.
55:13The Chrysler Building at 319 metres in 1930,
55:17followed by the famous Empire State Building in 1931,
55:21which topped out at 381 metres.
55:25The Eiffel Tower in so many ways is surpassed by skyscrapers,
55:29the building of taller and taller structures,
55:33especially in the United States.
55:37And I think there's a way that in terms of appreciating its longevity,
55:40one has to understand that what began
55:44as unforeseen modern construction,
55:48so bold, so geometric, so non-figurative,
55:52at some point transforms into
55:56a certain quaintness,
56:00a certain nostalgia for a 19th century
56:04that has been so surpassed by the 20th.
56:07The Eiffel Tower still stands not just for Paris,
56:11but for 19th century Paris.
56:19Now in the hands of the city of Paris,
56:23this 19th century monument renews itself constantly
56:27to retain its glamour.
56:31In 1985, 336 sodium lamps were installed inside the structure.
56:34Then a network of LED bulbs was added
56:38all over the outer surface
56:42to create a sparkling effect
56:46that has delighted visitors since the turn of the millennium.
56:50Its nocturnal aura has been further enhanced
56:54in the early 21st century
56:58by the installation of a new beacon
57:01that casts a spectacular beam through the Parisian night sky.
57:10This powerful spotlight no longer signals the tower to aircraft
57:14since the Paris skies have been close to them.
57:18It now shines out over the French capital and its suburbs
57:22for the pleasure of all.
57:31For over 30 years, the brilliant Gustave Eiffel
57:35and his eccentric Iron Lady went through uncertain times,
57:39but together they worked wonders
57:43and have made Paris a magnet for travellers from all over the world.
57:48During World War I, wireless telegraphy saved France
57:52from defeat by thwarting German attacks.
57:56Nowadays, nothing is too daring for it to please the crowds
58:00on special popular celebrations like Bastille Day.
58:05A visionary work and the adventure of a lifetime for its creator,
58:09the Eiffel Tower has never ceased to reinvent itself.
58:25Transcription by ESO, translated by —
58:55Transcription by ESO, translated by —