Gustave Eiffel 1832 – 1923

Biography

Gustave Eiffel was born in Dijon, France, and studied engineering before founding a company that specialized in iron structures. His firm built railway bridges across Europe, the iron framework of the Statue of Liberty in New York, and the Garabit Viaduct in France, one of the highest bridges of its age. For the Paris Exposition of 1889 he designed the three-hundred-metre iron tower that bears his name, then the tallest structure in the world, which was denounced by artists as an eyesore and became the symbol of Paris. In later life he turned to aerodynamics, building a wind tunnel and studying the flight of early aircraft. He died in Paris in 1923, at the age of ninety-one. His tower, intended to last only twenty years, still stands as the emblem of Paris and attracts millions of visitors annually.