What am I looking at?
October 22, 2014
If you stand underneath the Eiffel Tower at night, this is the view you will have.
And this is what it looks like in daylight.
The Eiffel Tower is my all time favorite building- edging out the Chrysler Building and the Terminal Tower in MHT.
Some facts:
The tower weighs around 10,000 tonnes.
There are just over 18,000 metallic parts in the tower, held together by 2.5 million rivets.
They were assembled by 121 workers, while 50 engineers and designers produced the blueprints.
It shrinks by about six inches in cold weather, and can grow by six inches on a sunny day.
It’s painted with 60 tons of paint every few years to stop it rusting.
It sways a couple of inches in the wind.
It’s the most-visited paid monument on Earth.
The photos and the facts are from Buzzfeed.
Scans of the original blueprints and a 360 degree tour can be found at the Eiffel Tower website.
Gunsmoke and Knitting 
My father was stationed in Paris for three years when I was a child (age 8 to 11) and I took the Eiffel Tower for granted as a result. My attitude changed radically the first time I took The Second Mrs. Pennington to Paris and saw La Tour through her eyes. It IS an absolutely overwhelming sight.
When I first saw the Tower I, too, was stunned by its size and its beauty. You must have wonderful memories of Paris – that would be a great age to experience the city.
I have a few stories about Paris during that time, linked in my sidebar under the titles “When I Was Eight” (there are three such).
Those are great stories. Thank you for posting them and for pointing them out. I’ll be back to read more of your favorites.
So did you take the amazing pictures? thanks for the facts I’ll buy my tickets now 😉
Unfortunately, not my photos. Aren’t they wonderful!
Well you have a good eye for choosing pics
Thanks!
I toured Europe and France and Paris and went repeatedly to the Eiffel Tower (I approached it from the Arc direct and then from the place Vendome, over the river and walked up to it. I had given up photography at that point and just wrote down what I saw. Now I regret that but not so much since I left all the hard copy photos behind years ago.
So, let’s go back.