Completion of the Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower was built as the monumental centrepiece and entrance arch of the 1889 Exposition Universelle, the world's fair marking the centennial of the French Revolution. Though it bears the name of the contractor Gustave Eiffel, the design was actually the work of his firm's senior engineers, Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier, with decorative treatment added by architect Stephen Sauvestre; Eiffel purchased the patent and directed the project to completion. Constructed between January 1887 and March 1889 using wrought iron lattice construction, the 330 metre tower was, at completion, the tallest human made structure in the world, a record it held for 41 years until surpassed by the Chrysler Building in 1930. The tower faced fierce opposition from the Parisian cultural establishment before construction, with prominent artists and writers signing a public protest against what they saw as an ugly industrial intrusion on the cityscape; Eiffel defended the design on engineering grounds. Despite this controversy the tower became one of the most recognisable structures in the world and remains the most visited paid monument on earth, a lasting symbol of both Paris and the possibilities of iron construction.