Eiffel Tower trivia: 43 facts about the famous monument

The Eiffel Tower is probably the most popular French monument.

The Eiffel Tower is located in the capital of France, Paris, and it is probably one of the most popular and outstanding monuments of the country.

1. The Eiffel Tower was completed on March 31, 1889.
2. It was the world’s tallest man-made structure for 41 years until the completion of the Chrysler Building in New York in 1930. 
3. It is 324 meters tall (including antennas).
4. It weighs 10,100 tonnes.
5. There are 1,665 steps in case you want to reach the top, but you can always use the elevator.
6. The stairway from the 2nd floor to the top is not open to the public
7. It costs €19 to take the lift to the top.
8. The lifts travel a combined distance of 103,000 km a year, which is two and a half times the circumference of the Earth.
9. During cold weather, the tower shrinks by about six inches.
10. Gustav Eiffel was the engineer and architect behind the tower.
11. Of course, the tower’s name comes from him.
12. Gustav Eiffel also designed interior elements of the Statue of Liberty.
13. Gustave Eiffel kept a small apartment on the third floor for entertaining friends.
14. It is now open to the public.
15. He died while listening to Beethoven’s 5th symphony.
16. Since its opening, more than 250 million people have visited the tower.
17. Today the tower welcomes almost 7 million people a year.
18. It is the most visited paid-for monument in the world.
19. Its construction took two years, two months and five days.
20. During the German occupation, the tower wasn’t open to the public.
21. Nazi soldiers then attempted to attach a swastika to the top, but it was so large it blew away and had to be replaced with a smaller one.
22. Repainting the tower requires 60 tonnes of paint.
23. Repainting is happening every 7 years.
24. The tower was the main exhibit at the 1889 Exposition Universelle (World’s Fair).
25. The tower appears in the 1985 Bond film A View to a Kill.
26. There are a number of other replicas around the world.
27. One of the most famous replicas is located in…Las Vegas.
28. It was originally intended to stand for 20 years before being dismantled.
29. Its use though as a wireless telegraph transmitter
30. French car manufacturer Citroen used the tower as a giant billboard between 1925 and 1934.
31. In 2008 a woman with an object fetish married the Eiffel Tower.
32. She changed her name to Erika La Tour Eiffel in honor of her ‘partner’.
33. The tower comprises 18,000 metallic parts, joined together by 2.5 million rivets.
34. The tower sways around six to seven centimeters (2-3 inches) in the wind.
35. The Eiffel Tower and Margaret Thatcher share the same nickname – La Dame de Fer (“The Iron Lady”).
36. In 1960 Charles de Gaulle proposed temporarily dismantling the tower and sending it to Montreal for Expo 67, but it didn’t happen.
37. The names of 72 engineers, scientists and mathematicians are engraved on the side of the tower.
38. In the computer game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, the tower is toppled by an airstrike.
39. There are 20,000 lightbulbs used on the Eiffel Tower to make it sparkle every night.
40. There’s a LEGO set for making an Eiffel Tower- number 10181.
41. In 1905 a local newspaper organized a stair climbing championship at the tower.
42. Of the 250 people who worked building the tower, nobody died while building the tower.
43. Only one Italian guy died when he came to the tower to visit it “privately” with his wife and had an accident