Building the Eiffel Tower

Explore the revolutionary engineering behind Paris’s iconic landmark. Completed in 1889, the iron tower smashed the record for the tallest structure on Earth, ushering in a new age of global construction that reached for the skies.

At the time of its construction, the Eiffel Tower was the tallest structure ever built. That meant that the engineers had a key challenge: making sure the structure could survive the wind.

The Eiffel Tower is an engineering icon that changed the face of the modern world.

The iron and steel interior of Lady Liberty works together to hold her over 300 feet above New York harbor more than 100 years after construction.

In 1887, the men working on the Eiffel Tower reported bleeding, difficulty breathing, and partial paralysis after being in pressurized air chambers. Today, we know this illness as the bends.