Eiffel Tower

The world's most famous TV antenna

Looking like two sets of train tracks that crashed into each other, Gustave Alexandre Eiffel's tower rises 1,056 feet above the banks of the Seine in all its steel girder glory.

The man who gave the Statue of Liberty a backbone designed this quintessential Parisian symbol merely as a temporary exhibit for the Exhibition of 1899, and managed to rivet together all 7,000 tons of it (with 2.5 million rivets) in under two years.

Fortunately for the French postcard industry, the tower's usefulness as a transmitter of telegraph, and later, radio and TV signals saved it from demolition. Critics of the day assailed its aesthetics, but no one could deny the feat of engineering.

It remained the tallest manmade structure in the world until the Chrysler Building stole the title in 1930, and it paved the way for the soaring skyscraper architecture of the 20th century.

The restaurants and bars on the first and second levels are pricey, but pretty good (Le Jules Verne is now run by one of the world's most famous chefs, Alain Ducasse).

The view from the second level is an intimate bird's eye of Paris, while from the fourth level you can see the entire city spread out below, and, on a good day, as far out as 42 miles. (Yes, you pay a different amount depending on how high you want to go—but, seriously, who doesn't want to go all the way to the top?)

Visibility is best near sunset.

One hint: Though it is possible to take stairs all the way to the second level (nearly halfway up), never agree to do so, especially if it's a group of teenage Boy Scouts in the prime of health who are trying to talk you into doing it. Trust me; I speak from experience.

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This article was last updated in February 2012. All information was accurate at the time.

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Copyright © 1998–2012 by Reid Bramblett. All rights reserved.