Skip to main content

Gustave Eiffel Biography

Gustave Eiffel

(Alexandre Gustave Eiffel; Dijon, 1832-Paris, 1923) French engineer and architect.After graduating from the School of Arts and Crafts in Paris in 1855, he specialized in the construction of metal bridges.His first work of this type was carried out in Bordeaux in 1858; In 1877 he designed the impressive 160-meter metal arch of the bridge over the Douro, near Porto.A little later it surpassed its own mark with the Garabit viaduct, for many years the highest artificial laying in the world (120 meters).

Gustave Eiffel

Pioneer when considering the aerodynamic factor in its constructions, to the point of building the first aerodynamic laboratory in Auteuil, To his credit are works as diverse as the mobile dome of the Nice Observatory or the metal structure of the famous Statue of Liberty in New York.

However, his greatest achievement was the impressive steel tower located in Paris and which was named after him.The Eiffel Tower was built on the Champ de Mars in Paris for the Universal Exhibition of 1889.Today it is one of the best-known buildings in the world and has become the symbol of the French capital.

The organization of the Universal Exhibition, commemorating the centenary of the French Revolution (1789), was used by Gustave Eiffel to demonstrate to the world the technological advances in the architecture of his country through the erection of a tower 300 meters high and an iron structure.After the approval of the project (conceived by his collaborator Maurice Koechlin) by the competent body, it was erected on the left bank of the Seine, in the heart of Paris.The works began in 1887 and two years and 6,900 tons of iron were invested in its construction.

The tower stands on a square base of 125 meters, which has the four starting supports embedded in its corners in which the elegant arches that support the different floors are inscribed.The curves of the four sides provide an impression of strength and beauty and the gaps favor the passage of air, guaranteeing the stability of the building.Its large-capacity elevator system was the first to be installed in the world.Its 300 meters made it the tallest building in the world until the inauguration of the Empire State Building in New York in 1922.

Eiffel Tower

Its Construction aroused a heated controversy, as many considered it a crude structure lacking artistic sensibility.At the beginning of its construction, a group of intellectuals-among which Garnier and Zola stood out-signed a letter of protest addressed to the curator of the Exhibition, in which they complained about that "vertiginous and ridiculous tower that dominates Paris, like a gigantic dark factory chimney ".The composer Charles Gounod and the writer Alexandre Dumas Jr.wrote a letter of protest against the construction of the tower; the writer Guy de Maupassant left Paris to show his disgust.But once finished, many of the initial detractors were seduced "by the fantastic that delights our littleness.Planted on its arched legs, solid, huge, monstrous, brutal, it seems that, disregarding whistles and applause, it tries to seek and defy the sky, regardless of what moves at your feet."

Originally conceived as a temporary attraction, in 1909 it was bought by the French state.Later it was considered to be demolished due to high maintenance costs and the danger of future weakening of the structure by oxidation.However, the strong popular reaction to the idea that the tower, considered a national symbol, would disappear, led to the abandonment of this purpose.Nowadays, in addition to being a tourist attraction, the tower houses the facilities of the French Radio and Television and functions as a beacon for planes heading to Paris Orly airport.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jose Maria Linares Biography

José María Linares (Potosí, 1810-Valparaíso, 1861) Bolivian politician.He was Minister of the Interior and Foreign Affairs (1840-1841).He fought against Belzú, and in 1857 overthrew his successor, becoming president of the Republic.He proclaimed himself dictator (1858) and faced the power of the clergy and the army.In 1861 he was overthrown by three of his collaborators.
Post a Comment
Read more

James Ramsay MacDonald Biography

James Ramsay MacDonald (Lossiemouth, Scotland, 1866-at sea, 1937) British politician who was Prime Minister between 1929 and 1935.Of humble origins, he joined the Independent Labor Party in 1894, of the one who would become president.In 1900 he participated in the formation of the Labor Representation Committee, an organization designed to ensure the presence in Parliament of an autonomous group that defended the reformist and egalitarian ideas of the trade union movement. Ramsay MacDonald In 1906 he was elected deputy in the midst of a great electoral success for his party, which changed its name to the Labor Party.He led the parliamentary group from 1911 to 1914, the year in which he did not get re-election due to his pacifist stance in the face of the imminent outbreak of the First World War.Re-elected in 1922 by a Welsh mining district, he became leader of the opposition. In 1924 he became Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of a brief minority government, from ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jose Luis Tamayo Biography

José Luis Tamayo (Guayas, 1859-?, 1947) Ecuadorian politician.Lawyer, deputy, senator and Minister of State, he succeeded the President of the Republic (1920-1924), Baquerizo Moreno.His mandate was characterized by the boost given to the Ecuadorian economy (cocoa exports, light industry), which enabled the growth of the middle class and the development of cities.
Post a Comment
Read more

Teresa Fidalgo: the origin of the story

There are very few people who have never heard of Teresa Fidalgo, a story that has become an urban legend and that you will have to determine if it is real or not from the information we offer you.We will also talk about other ghosts that reappear on the roads.Reality or only urban legend? of history "> Article index The ghost of Teresa Fidalgo The story of Teresa Fidalgo t scraped to the Sintra road in Portugal, where her story is more than known for everything that happened after his death. It all started in 1983 when Teresa Fidalgo dies in a traffic accident on the aforementioned road, Sintra.There have been many people who have claimed to see her at that point, but only one event is what made this ghost truly popular, not only among the Portuguese but also throughout the world. In 1988 , five years later after Teresa Fidalgo's death, three teenagers (Tiago, David and Tania) were in their car to go out, a journey that was supposed to be Quiet and, the r...
1 comment
Read more

Isamu noguchi Biography

Isamu Noguchi (Los Angeles, 1904-New York, 1988) American sculptor and designer whose works are representative of the expressive power of organic abstract works developed by 20th century American sculpture. Isamu Noguchi Son of the Japanese poet Yone Noguchi, his training was broad and cosmopolitan.He studied at Columbia University and, after residing for a few years in Japan, he moved to New York, where he continued his training with Onorio Ruotolo.During 1923 he traveled through England, China and Mexico, and later moved to Paris, where he was Constantin Brancusi's assistant for two years, between 1927 and 1928.There he met and related to sculptors such as Alberto Giacometti and Alexander Calder and developed a enthusiastic abstract sculpture.It was also influenced by surrealism and the work of Picasso and Joan Miró. His first exhibition was held in 1929 in New York.In 1938 he won the national competition to decorate the Associated Press pavilion at New York's Rockef...
Post a Comment
Read more

Joseph H. Maclagan Wedderburn Biography

Joseph H.Maclagan Wedderburn (Forfar, 1882-Princeton, 1948) British mathematician.Professor at Princeton University, he was editor of the Proceedings of the Edinburgh mathematical society (1905-1909) and the Annals of mathematics (1912-1928).He stated a theorem ( Wedderburn's theorem ) according to which every finite field is commutative.
Post a Comment
Read more

Jean-Henri d’Anglebert Biography

Jean-Henri d'Anglebert (Paris, 1628- id ., 1691) French composer.He was a student of Chambonnières and one of the greatest harpsichord players of his time.His Sixty pieces for harpsichord (1689) are especially important for their many indications on the correct execution and ornamentation of Baroque music.
Post a Comment
Read more

Edward fitzgerald Biography

Edward Fitzgerald (Edward Purcell; Bredfield, 1809-Merton Rectory, Norfolk, 1883) English poet and translator.He is the author of the philosophical dialogue Euphranor (1851) and a Collection of apothegms and axioms (1852), but he is known, above all, for his adaptation of the Rubaiyat by the Persian poet Omar Jayyam (1859). Edward Fitzgerald Of aristocratic lineage, Edward Fitzgerald was educated at Trinity Cambridge College, where he befriended Alfred Tennyson (who dedicated his poem Tiresias to him), William Makepeace Thackeray, James Spedding and WB Donne, graduating in 1830; later he would study Spanish and Persian privately.He lived a lonely country lord existence in Suffolk, Woodbridge, or the surrounding area; He only moved from there on the occasion of a few periodic trips to London and alternated literary activity with gardening and yachting.An eccentric character, he was a brilliant correspondent and maintained a close literary relationship with Thomas Carlyle ...
Post a Comment
Read more