City of Light or City of Fright?

As visitors head toward the City of Light this winter, they may well find more thrills than they bargained for at Paris’ most famous and iconic landmark, the Eiffel Tower.

Last month, France’s most visited tourist site unveiled its stunning new attraction – a solid glass floor, which allows people to look almost 190 feet down to the street below. If that isn’t enough to make your legs turn to jelly, the safety barriers, which are also made from glass, actually tilt outwards. It’s not for the faint-hearted!

The new glass viewing platform is part of the area’s $37.5-million refurbishment program, and took two years to build. Also included in the refit are new shops and  restaurants, which will be producing their own wind and solar energy, and eco-friendly public restrooms, that partially run on rainwater. In addition, disabled visitors now have full access to the Tower, and there is also a museum, with seven screens which tell the story of the Iron Lady… which incidentally, celebrated her 125^th birthday earlier this year.

Jean-Bernard Bros, the president of SETE, the Tower’s operator, when asked about the positive ecological impact of the project, said simply;

“We wanted to set an example.”

Given that the Eiffel Tower attracts in the region of seven million visitors a year, 85% of whom are foreigners, we feel the example is being well and truly set!

Want to know more about The Iron Lady? Here are some quick facts:

1. Construction began on January 28th 1887, and took two years, 10,000 tonnes of iron, and just over 7,799,400 Francs (the equivalent of around $47m today), to build.
2. During construction, 300 artists and architects submitted a petition, demanding that construction of the ‘ridiculous tower’ be stopped.
3. The Tower was opened in 1889 at the World’s Fair, which was held in Paris that year.
4. She has to be repainted every seven years, making that 18 new paint jobs – each time, using 60 tonnes of paint.
5. Standing at 1,070 feet high, for 41 years, the Eiffel Tower was the tallest building in the world, until New York’s Chrysler Building was completed.
6. Gustav Eiffel’s monument to the French Revolution was only designed to be a temporary structure, and was scheduled to be dismantled two decades after it was opened; however, Eiffel persuaded Paris’ authorities otherwise, which we think, was a very smart move.
7. In 1944, the Tower was under threat of destruction again – this time by Hitler, who ordered it to be destroyed. Fortunately for the Iron Lady – and the rest of us – his instructions fell on deaf ears.
8. During the summer months, she can grow by 6 inches, due to the heat of the sun. Conversely, in the winter, she shrinks.
9. During windy days, the top of the Tower can sway… by around 7 meters. Who wants to be a radio mast engineer?!
10. You can climb the 1,710 steps… but they will only get you as far as the glass floor. To go to the top, you have to take the elevator.
11. Each year, the elevator travels the equivalent distance of 2.5 times the world’s circumference.
12. The Tower is the most visited pay-to-enter monument in the entire world, with an annual turnover of $91 million.
13. To date, around 275 million people have visited the Eiffel Tower. Have you been yet?