The wait is over...it's Story Number 5!!!

Phileas has been in Paris for 2 days now, he is having so much fun meeting loads of new friends, eating the tastiest baguette’s made fresh every morning, and visiting all the wonderful places in Paris. One place that excited Phileas so much was the Eiffel Tower, he was so excited he sent home this letter for us all to read; it is the story of the creation of the Eiffel Tower.

Dear Friends,

I am having so much fun already and there is still many days to go, today I visited the Eiffel Tower and was told the story of the creation of it. It is such a fascinating story I have to share...

In 1886, Gustave Eiffel a very famous French builder, was chosen to build a tower in Paris for the 1889 International Exposition. However, when people first saw his drawings, they were not pleased. In fact, many people truly hated the new tower.

“What is this?” asked a famous Paris artist.

“It is a picture of the new tower they are building for the International Exposition,” replied his friend. “Do you like it?”

“No,” declared the artist, “I hate it. It is the strangest looking tower I have ever seen. It has no beauty and it will destroy Paris.”

Around Paris, other people were saying the same thing. “The tower that Gustave Eiffel is building looks like a big steel lamp,” wrote one newspaper reporter. “Eiffel is building a factory pipe,” wrote another reporter.

Many of the Paris artists and other important people wrote letters demanding that the Eiffel Tower not be built. They believed that Paris was too great a city for such a horrible tower. But thankfully, the people in charge did not listen to these complaints.

Gustave Eiffel was one of the first builders to use metal in his constructions. He was famous for building large and strong bridges and tall buildings made of metal. Before building the Eiffel Tower, he also designed and built the Statue of Liberty in New York City.

On July 1, 1887, Eiffel and his company began working on the tower.  It was a very unusual king of building project because they first made all the pieces of the tower in a factory. Then, they brought the pieces to Paris and put them together like a puzzle.

Each piece of the puzzle was put together with special nails called rivets. The rivets were so large that it took four men to put on in. Since there were over two million rivets, this was a very big job. But slowly the pieces were put together and the tower went up and up and up.

By March 15th, 1888, the workmen completed the first level. Then, six month later, they had put the second level together. By March of 1889, the tower was completed and ready for the Exposition. When it was finished, it was 324 meters tall and weighed more than 10,000 tons.

When the Eiffel Tower was finished, the people of Paris were very pleased with it. Those who thought that the tower would look ugly now thought it was one of the most wonderful structures ever made.

I hope you enjoyed that story, can’t wait to tell you more from my journey.

Your Friend

Phileas