The iconic Eiffel Tower is one of the most popular and most visited monuments in the world, with more than 7 million people visiting it every year.
As well as being tall, the Eiffel Tower is a heavy structure.
The Eiffel Tower’s overall weight is a massive 10,100 tonnes (10,100,000 kg).
That’s 22,266,688 pounds, which is about the weight of 95 Blue Whales!
When Was The Eiffel Tower Built?
It’s huge iron lattice structure that was built on the 31st of March 1889, for the 1889 Paris Exposition.
Initially designed to be a temporary structure and to be demolished in 1909, the Eiffel tower has managed to survive two world wars and has seen many other buildings come and go since it was constructed.
Built by the French Engineer Gustave Eiffel, this eye-catching tower is also known as the ‘Iron Lady’.
How Tall Is The Iron Lady?
Up until 1930, the Eiffel Tower was actually the tallest manmade structure in the entire world at 1,063 feet tall.
It wasn’t until 1930 that the Chrysler building in New York took the title away from the Eiffel Tower.
What Is The Construction?
The Eiffel Tower is made up of over 18,000 wrought iron parts, which are all held together by 2 ½ million rivets.
7,341 tonnes of wrought iron was used to originally build it.
Thanks to its 5 billion lights, it lights up the Paris skyline every night, adding to the romance and excitement of the city.
~Fun Fact~
You need a good head for heights and a lot of paintbrushes and cans of paint to paint the Eiffel tower. It has to be painted once every 7 years to prevent it from rusting.Every time it needs a facelift, 60 tons of paint are needed to complete this maintenance work. That’s the weight of 10 elephants!
Resources:
https://www.wonders-of-the-world.net/Eiffel-Tower/Weight-of-the-Eiffel-tower.php
https://www.livescience.com/29391-eiffel-tower.html