RESEARCH

METHODOLOG
Y
BAP 313

Gayathri 00706142017
 HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE V | S.Gayathri 00706142017

THE CONSTRUCTION OF EIFFEL TOWER

The assembly of the supports began on July 1, 1887 and was completed twenty-two months later.
All the elements were prepared in Eiffel’s factory located at
Levallois-Perret on the outskirts of Paris. Each of the 18,000
pieces used to construct the Tower were specifically designed and
calculated, traced out to an accuracy of a tenth of a millimetre and
then put together forming new pieces around five metres each. A
team of constructors, who had worked on the great metal viaduct
projects, were responsible for the 150 to 300 workers on site
assembling this gigantic erector set.
All the metal pieces of the tower are held together by rivets, a
well-refined method of construction at the time the Tower was Figure 1: Bolting the joint of two
constructed. First the pieces were assembled in the factory using crossbowmen
bolts, later to be replaced one by one with thermally assembled
rivets, which contracted during cooling thus ensuring a very tight
fit. A team of four men was needed for each rivet assembled: one
to heat it up, another to hold it in place, a third to shape the head and a fourth to beat it with a
sledgehammer. Only a third of the 2,500,000 rivets used in the construction of the Tower were
inserted directly on site.
The uprights rest on concrete foundations
installed a few metres below ground-level on
top of a layer of compacted gravel. Each
corner edge rests on its own supporting block,
applying to it a pressure of 3 to 4 kilograms
per square centimetre, and each block is
joined to the others by walls.
On the Seine side of the construction, the
builders used watertight metal caissons and
injected compressed air, so that they were able
to work below the level of the water.
The tower was assembled using wooden
scaffolding and small steam cranes mounted
onto the tower itself.
The assembly of the first level was achieved
by the use of twelve temporary wooden
scaffolds, 30 metres high, and four larger
scaffolds of 40 metres each.
"Sand boxes" and hydraulic jacks - replaced
after use by permanent wedges - allowed the
metal girders to be positioned to an accuracy
of one millimetre.

On December 7, 1887, the joining of the major girders up to the first level was completed. The pieces
were hauled up by steam cranes, which themselves climbed up the Tower as they went along using
the runners to be used for the Tower's lifts.

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 HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE V | S.Gayathri 00706142017

It only took five months to build the foundations and twenty-one to finish assembling the metal pieces
of the Tower.

Considering the rudimentary means available at that period, this could be considered record speed.
The assembly of the Tower was a marvel of precision, as all chroniclers of the period agree. The
construction work began in January 1887 and was finished on March 31, 1889. On the narrow
platform at the top, Eiffel received his decoration from the Legion of Honour.