Subsequent events

10 September 1889
Thomas Edison visited the tower. He signed the guestbook with the following message—
To M Eiffel the Engineer the brave builder of so gigantic and original specimen of modern
Engineering from one who has the greatest respect and admiration for all Engineers including
the Great Engineer the Bon Dieu, Thomas Edison.
19 October 1901
Alberto Santos-Dumont in his Dirigible No.6 won a 10,000-franc prize offered by Henri Deutsch
de la Meurthe for the first person to make a flight from St Cloud to the Eiffel tower and back in
less than half an hour.
1910
Father Theodor Wulf measured radiant energy at the top and bottom of the tower. He found
more at the top than expected, incidentally discovering what are today known as cosmic rays.
4 February 1912

Austrian tailor Franz Reichelt died after jumping 60 metres from the first deck of Eiffel tower
with his home-made parachute.
1914
A radio transmitter located in the tower jammed German radio communications during the
lead-up to the First Battle of the Marne.
1925
The con artist Victor Lustig "sold" the tower for scrap metal on two separate, but related
occasions.
February 1926
Pilot Leon Collet killed after flying beneath the span of the tower; his airplane having become
entangled in an aerial of the wireless station.
1930
The tower lost the title of the world's tallest structure when the Chrysler Building was
completed in New York City.
1925 to 1934
Illuminated signs for Citroën adorned three of the tower's four sides, making it the tallest
advertising space in the world at the time.
1940–1944
Upon the German occupation of Paris in 1940, the lift cables were cut by the French so that
Adolf Hitler would have to climb the steps to the summit. The parts to repair them were
allegedly impossible to obtain because of the war. In 1940 German soldiers had to climb to the
top to hoist the swastika[citation needed], but the flag was so large it blew away just a few
hours later, and was replaced by a smaller one. When visiting Paris, Hitler chose to stay on the
ground. It was said that Hitler conquered France, but did not conquer the Eiffel Tower. A
Frenchman scaled the tower during the German occupation to hang the French flag. In August
1944, when the Allies were nearing Paris, Hitler ordered General Dietrich von Choltitz, the
military governor of Paris, to demolish the tower along with the rest of the city. Von Choltitz
disobeyed the order. Some say Hitler was later persuaded to keep the tower intact so it could
later be used for communications. The lifts of the Tower were working normally within hours of
the Liberation of Paris.[citation needed]
3 January 1956
A fire damaged the top of the tower.
1957
The present radio antenna was added to the top.
1980s
A restaurant and its supporting iron scaffolding midway up the tower was dismantled; it was
purchased and reconstructed on St. Charles Avenue and Josephine Street in the Garden District
of New Orleans, Louisiana, by entrepreneurs John Onorio and Daniel Bonnot, originally as the
Tour Eiffel Restaurant, later as the Red Room and now as the Cricket Club (owned by the New
Orleans Culinary Institute). The restaurant was re-assembled from 11,000 pieces that crossed
the Atlantic in a 40-foot (12 m) cargo container.
31 March 1984
Robert Moriarty flew a Beechcraft Bonanza through the arches of the tower.
1987
A.J. Hackett made one of his first bungee jumps from the top of the Eiffel Tower, using a special
cord he had helped develop. Hackett was arrested by the Paris police upon reaching the
ground.
27 October 1991
Thierry Devaux, along with mountain guide Hervé Calvayrac, performed a series of acrobatic
figures of bungee jumping (not allowed) from the second floor of the Tower. Facing the Champ
de Mars, Thierry Devaux was using an electric winch between each figure to go back up. When
firemen arrived, he stopped after the sixth bungee jump.
New Year's Eve 1999
The Eiffel Tower played host to Paris's Millennium Celebration. On this occasion, flashing lights
and four high-power searchlights were installed on the tower, and fireworks were set off all
over it. An exhibition above a cafeteria on the first floor commemorates this event. Since then,
the light show has become a nightly event. The searchlights on top of the tower make it a
beacon in Paris's night sky, and the 20,000 flash bulbs give the tower a sparkly appearance
every hour on the hour.
28 November 2002
The tower received its 200,000,000th guest.
2004
The Eiffel Tower began hosting an ice skating rink on the first floor each winter.
Wind consideration
At the time the tower was built many people were shocked by its daring shape. Eiffel was
criticized for the design and accused of trying to create something artistic, or inartistic
according to the viewer, without regard to engineering. Eiffel and his engineers, however, as
experienced bridge builders, understood the importance of wind forces and knew that if they
were going to build the tallest structure in the world they had to be certain it would withstand
the wind. Eiffel used empirical and graphical methods accounting for the effects of wind rather
than a specific mathematical formula. Careful examination of the tower shows a basically
exponential shape; actually two different exponentials, the lower section overdesigned to
ensure resistance to wind forces.
Materials of Eiffel Tower
During the World's Fair in 1889, Contractor Gustave Eiffel introduced the Eiffel Tower. An
engineer by training, Eiffel founded and developed a company specializing in metal structural
work. He devoted the last thirty years of his life to his experimental research. His most popular
achievement was the Eiffel Tower. Towering nearly 320 meters tall, and weighing 10,100 tons,
the Eiffel tower stands both as a landmark, recognizable throughout the world as the icon of
the city of Paris, and as a monumental example of materials' structure, properties and
performance. The tower is composed of puddling iron, not steel as many of today's buildings.
Total 7,000 metric tons of puddling iron, which were the precursor to construction steel, was
used. Like most materials, the tower undergoes thermal expansion. Thermal expansion is when
a material changes dimensions while it undergoes temperature changes. The tower expands
and contracts 15 cm from the hottest to the coldest day
Accommodation
When originally built, the first level contained three restaurants — one French, one Russian and
one Flemish — and an "Anglo-American Bar". After the exposition closed, the Flemish
restaurant was converted to a 250-seat theatre. A promenade 2.6-metre (8 ft 6 in) wide ran
around the outside of the first level. At the top, there were laboratories for various
experiments, and a small apartment reserved for Gustave Eiffel to entertain guests, which is
now open to the public, complete with period decorations and lifelike mannequins of Eiffel and
some of his notable guests.

In May 2016, an apartment was created on the first level to accommodate four competition
winners during the UEFA Euro 2016 football tournament in Paris in June. The apartment has a
kitchen, two bedrooms, a lounge, and views of Paris landmarks including the Seine, the Sacre
Coeur, and the Arc de Triomphe