The angry and influential critics that began swarming in 1886 described Gustave Eiffel's proposed tower as a "truly tragic street lamp," a "belfry skeleton," a "mast of iron gymnasium apparatus, incomplete, confused and deformed" and a "high and skinny pyramid of iron ladders."
These and other catcalls were issued by some of the most prominent artists and writers of the day. Composer Charles Gounod spoke for the group, "We come, we writers, painters, sculptors, architects, lovers of the beauty of Paris, which was until now intact, to protest with all our strength and all our indignation, in the name of the underestimated taste of the French, in the name of French art and history under threat, against the erection in the very heart of our capital, of the useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower."
Gounod would end up eating those words at a luncheon hosted by Eiffel in his private apartment atop the useless and monstrous tower just three years later.
When I've been lucky enough to be walking the streets of Paris, the Eiffel Tower always seems to show up at the right moment when my companion says something to turn my head so that I can see it over his or her shoulder, glittering in the distance, framing the experience, lifting the moment from its routine and elevating it from a personal, to a Parisian experience, a part of the larger imagination of life that is Paris itself, as if the tower were writing the word Paris in calligraphy above the moment.
Eiffel answered his critics with a serene eloquence, saying that his tower would "possess its own beauty" and that "the curvature of the monument's four outer edges," would give "a great impression of strength and beauty, for it will reveal to the eyes of the observer the boldness of the design as a whole."
It took about 26 months to construct the tower and Eiffel built himself what author Henri Gerard, in his book La Tour Eiffel de Trois Cent Métres, describes as a cozy pied à terre sporting paisley wallpaper, wood furniture and oil paintings in the tower at an altitude of about 1,000 feet. By the time Eiffel hosted Thomas Edison and his family for a champagne luncheon in the private apartment, Gounod, who had spoken for the critics in 1886, was happily playing piano at the luncheon for Eiffel and his guests.
Towers accentuate vision in two ways: they provide platforms to see far off and monuments to be seen from far away. For Eiffel and Edison on that night so long ago looking out from the tower, the view must have been fine indeed. And it was a fine sight also for those looking at the tower from far off then, as it is now.
When it opened as the centerpiece of the 1889 Exposition Universelle, the Eiffel Tower attracted two million visitors in its first year. Today, with seven million annual visitors, it's the world's most visited pay-to-enter attraction and has already hosted about 250 million visitors.
The tower, originally commissioned to celebrate the first centennial of Bastille Day, was supposed to be disassembled after 20 years, but the advent of radio changed all that, as the tower finally had a practical raison d' etre as a radio tower.
The rise of theme parks has stolen some of the thunder that Worlds Fairs and Expos used to create, but theme parks aren't the same as Expos. Strictly speaking, theme parks only entertain, but the great Expos anticipate important thresholds that the international community needs to face together. In promoting the Milan Expo 2015, Monograms paid homage to Worlds Fairs in its promotional materials.
"The Eiffel Tower, the elevator, the telephone, motion pictures, Cracker Jacks, the Ferris wheel, the fax machine, the electric typewriter and the ice cream cone-they were all first presented at the World's Fairs and Expos. What exciting new invention will be presented at the Milan Expo in 2015?"
A visit to the Eiffel Tower is still a thrilling experience comprised of a fine scenic ascent along one of Eiffel's curving verticals, topped by a panorama of Paris and the option of a good meal at any of four dining venues including a buffet, a Champagne bar, 58 Tour Eiffel (a brasserie) and the elegant Le Jules Verne. New innovations at the Eiffel Tower include a glass floor that was unveiled this year and the opening of Eiffel's private apartment to the public, offering all of us a chance to imagine the conversation that he and Edison had all those years ago to the sound of the silenced critic's fine piano playing.
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