The Eiffel Tower, built for the century of the French Revolution, was the tallest building in the world when it was unveiled at the Paris World's Fair in 1889. The intent was just to demonstrate the capabilities of modern engineering. Although it has been surpassed in height by nearly a dozen skyscrapers since then, Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel's chocolate-brown, 984-foot open-lattice wrought-iron tower remains one of the world's premiere tourist attractions.
Before the Tower's construction, critics called Eiffel's design an eyesore and predicted that the Tower would cost too much to build. Eiffel knew better. His crew assembled the 18,000 pieces of iron in just 21 months. Eiffel was one of the first engineers to recognize the importance of wind forces on tall structures. He designed the surface of his Tower to be so minimal that the wind has virtually nothing to grab onto. All pieces of the Tower form an open lattice of light trusses through which the wind can blow.
The Eiffel Tower was one of the first tall structures in the world to contain passenger elevators, and tourists loved them. Elevator ticket sales in the Eiffel Tower regained almost the entire cost of the structure -- in just one year! On the ground: The machinery of the 1899 elevator. Every visitor with a ticket to visit the monument can watch the machinery of the corresponding elevator in operation in the East and West pillars. This voyage underground, in an atmosphere which evokes Jules Verne, lets you discover the imposing hydraulic machines designed by Gustave Eiffel.