Paris - Gustave Eiffel - 7me

Plate LXVI - Gustave Eiffel…

Beneath the tower bearing his name is a gilded bust of the engineer Gustave Eiffel. As you stand in line to buy a ticket to ascend his masterpiece you can almost feel his gaze upon you. Not a modest man by all accounts, his slight smile seems to have an air of vindication – for the tower’s construction was not without its opponents. Forgotten too is the blame laid on Eiffel for the disaster of the Panama Canal that was to later somewhat tarnish his image.

A master of construction in metal, Eiffel was first noted for his design of bridges, initially the trussed girder railway bridges in Vichy, and his later span bridges. There are notably those in Bordeaux; the Pia Maria Bridge in Oporto in Portugal; and the 160 metre arched bridge - the Garabit Viaduct over the Truyère River near Saint-Flour in southern France, for many years the highest in the world. It was notably with his bridge design at Rouzat that Eiffel heightened his understanding of wind forces, and the design of curved towers to achieve lateral stiffness - so essential an element in the design of his tower.

It was Eiffel’s expertise that was called on to design the internal supporting structure and framework of the Statue of Liberty.

No wonder Eiffel has been dubbed ‘the magician of iron’.