Yesterday

The Iconic Under Construction Photographs from History

The wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. The iconic wonders that shook the world with its wonderful design named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel. The wager was to "study the possibility of erecting an iron tower on the Champ-de-Mars with a square base, 125 metres across and 300 metres tall". Selected from among 107 projects, it was that of Gustave Eiffel, an entrepreneur, Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier, both engineers, and Stephen Sauvestre, an architect, that was accepted.

Emile Nouguier and Maurice Koechlin, the two chief engineers in Eiffel's company, had the idea for a very tall tower in June 1884. It was to be designed like a large pylon with four columns of lattice work girders, separated at the base and coming together at the top, and joined to each other by more metal girders at regular intervals.

The tower project was a bold extension of this principle up to a height of 300 metres - equivalent to the symbolic figure of 1000 feet. On September 18 1884 Eiffel registered a patent "for a new configuration allowing the construction of metal supports and pylons capable of exceeding a height of 300 metres.

The construction itself lasted two years : June 1884 : The project began and the first drawings were done. January 28th, 1887 : The works begin. April 1st, 1888 : The first stage was completed. August 14th, 1888 : The second stage was completed. March 31st, 1889 : The third and final stage in which the tower was completed in its entirety ended. The Eiffel Tower was inaugurated on March 31, 1889. Gustave Eiffel walked the 1,710 steps to the top of the Tower to place the tricolored French flag at its summit. At the time, the Tower was 312 meters high.

The Design was made with 18,038 metallic parts, 5300 workshop designs, 30 engineers and designers. The construction of the Iconic Eiffel Tower was done in 2 years, 2 months and 5 days of construction with around 150 workers, 7,300 tonnes of iron, 60 tonnes of iron and 5 lifts.

The moment lies in these anonymous archive photographs. The smile, sweat and effort of hundreds of workers who were left unnoticed. Yesterday

FROM THE 1889 anonymous archives

The assembly of the supports began on July 1, 1887 and was completed 22 months later. All the elements were prepared in Eiffel’s factory located on the outskirts of Paris. All the metal pieces of the tower are held together with rivets, a well refined method of construction and the first pieces were assembled in the factory using bolts. A team of 4 men was needed for each rivet assembled.

Left : Anonymous photographs during the construction of the Eiffel Tower Right : Workers on a scaffolding, Eiffel Tower, 1888