The Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 Paris World’s Fair and was always intended to be temporary. More than 300 prominent figures signed a petition against its construction, calling it an iron disgrace. The structure was built anyway, but with a permit that expired after twenty years. What saved it was practical utility. The tower’s height made it valuable for wireless telegraphy, and military and government communication uses gave authorities a reason to keep it standing. By the time the permit expired, the tower had become useful enough that demolition was never seriously pursued.
Daniel and Mom trace the tower’s unlikely survival from hated temporary structure to permanent icon. The conversation covers the petition, the original demolition plan, the radio antenna that changed the tower’s fate, and the gradual reversal of public opinion that turned a controversial structure into the most photographed landmark in the world.
DanielMom, I couldn't imagine Paris without the Eiffel Tower. It is Paris, you know.
MomDaniel, it is now. But when it was built, some of the most celebrated artists and writers in France wanted it torn down before it was even finished.
DanielWhat? Why did they want it torn down?
MomAnd you know, after it was built, it came very close to disappearing, in a way most people have no idea about. So let's go back to 1887. Gustave Eiffel has just announced plans to build a massive iron tower for the 1889 Paris World's Fair. And within weeks, a group of Paris' most prominent intellectuals published a letter in a major newspaper calling it a disaster.
DanielWhy would they call it that?
MomAmong other things, a gigantic black smokestack. A blight on Paris. A truly tragic street lamp. Guy de Maupassant, one of the most famous French writers of the time, called it an eyesore and said it was an insult to everything beautiful about Paris.
DanielThey really hated it that much, huh?
MomAlexander Dumas' son signed the petition. Charles Garnier, the architect who designed the Paris Opera House, signed it. These were not random critics. These were the cultural authorities of France. And they were furious.
DanielSince it is up now, so how did it get built anyway?
MomEiffel pushed ahead. The tower was completed in 1889, the tallest structure in the world at the time. Two million people visited during the fair. And here's the thing. Even Guy de Maupassant came. He reportedly ate lunch at the tower's restaurant regularly after it opened.
DanielThe man who hated it most kept going back?
MomHe said it was the only restaurant in Paris where he didn't have to look at the tower.
DanielMom, that is the best complaint in history.
MomBut here is where it almost ended. The tower was only ever approved as a temporary structure. The original agreement with the city of Paris gave Eiffel a 20-year permit. When it expired in 1909, the city could legally tear it down. And many people still wanted that.
DanielIt was scheduled to be demolished?
MomThe permit was expiring. The critics had never fully gone away. And the tower had lost some of its novelty. It wasn't the sensation it had been in 1889. The same thing had happened to another massive structure from the same World's Fair, the Gallery of Machines, which had been the largest building in the world.
MomThe city voted to demolish it in 1906.
DanielSo the Eiffel Tower could have ended up the same way.
MomExcept, Eiffel had been quietly preparing. As early as 1898, the tower had been used for radio experiments. By the early 1900s, Eiffel was working with French military engineers to install a proper antenna at the summit. And by 1909, the tower could transmit radio signals thousands of miles away.
MomIt had become one of the most strategically important communications stations in France.
DanielSo when the permit expired and the city had the chance to remove it, the military said no.
MomThe French government decided it was too valuable to tear down. Not mainly because people had come to appreciate it. Because it had become too valuable as a communications tower.
DanielThe most famous landmark in the world was saved by a radio transmitter.
MomAnd during World War I, just a few years later, the tower intercepted enemy radio communications, relayed alerts about airship attacks, and helped coordinate troop movements. It wasn't just saved. It proved its worth in ways nobody had imagined when Eiffel first proposed it.
DanielSo the critics called it a tragic street lamp. And it ended up being a weapon.
MomA communications tool, which in war is often as important as any weapon. And here is what I find most interesting. Many of the critics who called it an eyesore eventually came to love it. The tower that was supposed to ruin Paris became the symbol of Paris.
DanielSo the people who said it would destroy the city were wrong. And the city they were trying to protect is now defined by the thing they hated.
MomThat happens more often than we might expect. New things are hard to judge, and the ones that last sometimes turn out to be the ones we can't imagine living without. So, Daniel, what is one thing you are taking with you today?
DanielLet's see. The Eiffel Tower was built as a temporary structure, only approved for 20 years. And some of the most famous writers and artists in France wanted it torn down. What saved it was radio. Eiffel had turned it into a military communications antenna. And by 1909, it was too strategically important to demolish.
MomA tragic street lamp that helped defend France.
DanielI wonder what De Maupassant would say now.
MomHe would probably still want a table with his back to it.
