120 years of Eiffelmania at the Hôtel de ville (townhall)
His mother, a clever business woman was behind the family’s prosperity thanks to the trade of coal, an ore from which iron is extracted. Gustave Eiffel who became an engineer, followed in his mother’s footsteps, rekindling her ambitions, revolutionising civil engineering through metallic bridges and viaducts with unsurpassed skill: lightness, flexibility, resistance to wind, « Eiffel’s » greatest enemy and… at a cost of half the price of stone constructions. An additional advantage, the Eiffel bridges did not require any scaffolding during assembly....
Redesigning the world
Eiffel redesigned the world from his arachnid works (80,000 tons of metallic structures were used throughout his career). Out of the Levallois factory came the new beams ready for assembly in Budapest (train station), New York (inside structure of the Statue of Liberty), Porto ( Maria Pia bridge on the Douro), Nice (the observatory dome) Paris (the Bon Marché dome)…South America, Indochina, even. Revolutionary mechanical works. Adept at handling iron, as the paradox, goes, Gustave Eiffel was as well conservative and grand bourgeois when it came to his indoor decor overloaded with precious furniture and tapestries, as innovative and rigorous in terms of work refinement..
Glory and boldness
When he conceived his 300-meter metallic tower for the 1889 Paris World’s Fair, Eiffel was at the height of his fame. The Iron Lady opened the second chapter of his life that was characterized by a great deal of suffering.
In 1887, at a time when the Eiffel Tower was already towering above Parisian roofs, the entrepreneur was involved in the ambitious Panama canal construction site, which was to connect the Atlantic with the Pacific. Solicited due to his know-how and fame, which were expected to facilitate subscriptions, he agreed to sign the contract for the supply of the ten canal locks necessary for this project. An incredible amount, 125 million French Francs, 15 times higher than the price of the Eiffel Tower. What happened next is general knowledge: bankruptcy, liquidation of the canal company, investors ruined. The greatest financial scandal of the 19th century. Morally damaged, accused in 1892, his pride took a cruel beating and he resigned from his company, requesting “his name to be removed from the company denomination”.
Eiffel, as scientist
At the age of 60, tired of the business world, he put an end to his metallurgical adventure and turned to pure science, renewing ties with his « oldest enemy, the wind ». From that time on, he dedicated himself to research on aerodynamics that went hand in hand with his reflections on the resistance of the Eiffel Tower structures.
A legend illustrated by Delaunay, Chagall, Seurat…
More than anyone else, Gustave Eiffel remains a legend, the one who defied wind and built the tower. A famous legend celebrated by the most famous artists: Robert Delaunay, Georges Seurat, Henri Rousseau, Marc Chagall,Raoul Dufy, Man Ray, Picasso…
Damienne Schilton, Mai 2009
Until 29 August 2009
Hôtel de ville
7, rue Lobau
75004 Paris
