rivets, reducing the need for skilled labour on site.

A number of different types

were produced, ranging from footbridges to standard-gauge railway bridges.[21]

In 1881 Eiffel was contacted by Auguste Bartholdi who was in need of an engineer to
help him to realise the Statue of Liberty. Some work had already been carried out
by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, but he had died in 1879. Eiffel was selected because of
his experience with wind stresses. Eiffel devised a structure consisting of a four
legged pylon to support the copper sheeting which made up the body of the statue.
The entire statue was erected at the Eiffel works in Paris before being dismantled
and shipped to the United States.[22]

In 1886 Eiffel also designed the dome for the Astronomical Observatory in Nice.
This was the most important building in a complex designed by Charles Garnier,
later among the most prominent critics of the Tower. The dome, with a diameter of
22.4 m (73 ft), was the largest in the world when built and used an ingenious
bearing device: rather than running on wheels or rollers, it was supported by a
ring-shaped hollow girder floating in a circular trough containing a solution of
magnesium chloride in water. This had been patented by Eiffel in 1881.

The Eiffel Tower

Main article: Eiffel Tower

Koechlin's first drawing for the Eiffel Tower. Note the sketched stack of
buildings, with Notre Dame at the bottom, indicating the scale of the proposed
tower.
The design of the Eiffel Tower was originated by Maurice Koechlin and Emile
Nouguier, who had discussed ideas for a centrepiece for the 1889 Exposition
Universelle. In May 1884 Koechlin, working at his home, made an outline drawing of
their scheme, described by him as "a great pylon, consisting of four lattice
girders standing apart at the base and coming together at the top, joined together
by metal trusses at regular intervals".[23] Initially Eiffel showed little
enthusiasm, although he did sanction further study of the project, and the two
engineers then asked Stephen Sauvestre to add architectural embellishments.
Sauvestre added the decorative arches to the base, a glass pavilion to the first
level and the cupola at the top. The enhanced idea gained Eiffel's support for the
project, and he bought the rights to the patent on the design which Koechlin,
Nougier and Sauvestre had taken out. The design was exhibited at the Exhibition of
Decorative Arts in the autumn of 1884, and on 30 March 1885 Eiffel read a paper on
the project to the Société des Ingénieurs Civils. After discussing the technical
problems and emphasising the practical uses of the tower, he finished his talk by
saying that the tower would symbolise[24]
"not only the art of the modern engineer, but also the century of Industry and
Science in which we are living, and for which the way was prepared by the great
scientific movement of the eighteenth century and by the Revolution of 1789, to
which this monument will be built as an expression of France's gratitude."

Little happened until the beginning of 1886, but with the re-election of Jules
Grévy as president and his appointment of Edouard Lockroy as Minister for Trade
decisions began to be made. A budget for the Exposition was passed and on 1 May
Lockroy announced an alteration to the terms of the open competition which was
being held for a centerpiece for the exposition, which effectively made the choice
of Eiffel's design a foregone conclusion: all entries had to include a study for a
300 m (980 ft) four-sided metal tower on the Champ de Mars. On 12 May a commission
was set up to examine Eiffel's scheme and its rivals and on 12 June it presented
its decision, which was that only Eiffel's proposal met their requirements. After
some debate about the exact site for the tower, a contract was signed on 8 January
1887. This was signed by Eiffel acting in his own capacity rather than as the
representative of his company, and granted him one and a half million francs toward
the construction costs. This was less than a quarter of the estimated cost of six
and a half million francs. Eiffel was to receive all income from the commercial
exploitation during the exhibition and for the following twenty years.[25] Eiffel
later established a separate company to manage the tower.

The tower had been a subject of some controversy, attracting criticism both from
those who did not believe it feasible and from those who objected on artistic
grounds. Just as work began at the Champ de Mars, the "Committee of Three Hundred"
(one member for each metre of the tower's height) was formed, led by Charles
Garnier and including some of the most important figures of the French arts
establishment, including Adolphe Bouguereau, Guy de Maupassant, Charles Gounod and
Jules Massenet: a petition was sent to Jean-Charles Adolphe Alphand, the Minister
of Works, and was published by Le Temps.[26]
"To bring our arguments home, imagine for a moment a giddy, ridiculous tower
dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack, crushing under its barbaric bulk
Notre Dame, the Tour Saint-Jacques, the Louvre, the Dome of les Invalides, the Arc
de Triomphe, all of our humiliated monuments will disappear in this ghastly dream.
And for twenty years ... we shall see stretching like a blot of ink the hateful
shadow of the hateful column of bolted sheet metal"

18 July 1887
18 July 1887

7 December 1887
7 December 1887

20 March 1888
20 March 1888

15 May 1888
15 May 1888

21 August 1888
21 August 1888

26 December 1888
26 December 1888

March 1889
March 1889

Caricature of Eiffel, published 1887 in Le Temps at the time of "The Artist's

Protest"
Work on the foundations started on 28 January 1887. Those for the east and south
legs were straightforward, each leg resting on four 2 m (6.6 ft) concrete slabs,
one for each of the principal girders of each leg but the other two, being closer
to the river Seine were more complicated: each slab needed two piles installed by
using compressed-air caissons 15 m (49 ft) long and 6 m (20 ft) in diameter driven
to a depth of 22 m (72 ft)[27] to support the concrete slabs, which were 6 m (20
ft) thick. Each of these slabs supported a limestone block, each with an inclined
top to bear the supporting shoe for the ironwork. These shoes were anchored by
bolts 10 cm (4 in) in diameter and 7.5 m (25 ft) long. Work on the foundations was
complete by 30 June and the erection of the iron work was started. Although no more
than 250 men were employed on the site, a prodigious amount of exacting preparatory
work was entailed: the drawing office produced 1,700 general drawings and 3,629
detail drawings of the 18,038 different parts needed.[28] The task of drawing the
components was complicate