PARIS - A model of refined simplicity on the outside, the iron lady that symbolizes Paris is a complicated piece of work inside her elegant A-line figure. Custom-fitted pumps, heaters and long-life bulbs keep the 119- year-old Eiffel Tower working and sparkling, while industrial-sized cogs, gears and cables spin, bump, grind and purr deep inside the structure's innards, in places no tourists see.
Were he alive, French architect Gustave Eiffel would have sympathized with Maya Lin. Design a monument to a controversial historic period," he might have told the young architect of the Vietnam Memorial, "and be prepared for criticism from every quarter.
When plans for the construction of the Eiffel Tower became known in 1886, much of Paris was aghast. A letter signed by Guy de Maupassant, Alexandre Dumas, Charles Gounod and other esteemed Parisians referred to"the odious shadow of the odious column of bolted metal." Lawsuits were filed by those who lived in the Champs de Mar area where the Tour en Fer de Trois Cents Metres would be built. Some charged the tower would generate more thunderstorms and heat. There was also an insidious attempt to appeal to anti-Semitic instincts, painting the engineer whose design won a competition to construct the tower as a Jew.
PARIS - Spring has arrived and it is time for a makeover of France's most emblematic edifice. Once every seven years, every crevice, nut, bolt and beam of the Eiffel Tower is re-painted by hand. But this year's face lift has a European touch.
PARIS -- Paris police say the Eiffel Tower is being evacuated following the second bomb threat against the monument in two weeks. The city's police headquarters says an anonymous caller phoned in a bomb threat Tuesday from a telephone booth near the tower.
PARIS - Pieces of old Paris, from a lamppost to a park bench, go on the auction block next week, with the pice de rsistance 40 iron steps from the Eiffel Tower, all 25.6 feet of them. Paris Mon Amour," the title given to the auction Monday at the famed French house Drouot, brings together an eclectic batch of memories that evoke a bygone era as well as the present.
The Eiffel Tower in Paris and its immediate surroundings have been evacuated amid French news reports of a bomb alert. An AP photographer on the site saw several busloads of police officers under the famous tower. An officer on the site says the tower and the nearby Champs de Mars park have been evacuated but has declined to give any other details.
Named for its designer, Gustave Eiffel, was dedicated 120 years ago today, on March 31, 1889. It opened in May of that year in time for Exposition Universelle, a World's Fair celebrating the centennial of the French Revolution. * The tower is 1,063 feet tall.
PARIS - The area under Paris' Eiffel Tower has been opened up to tourists again after an anonymous caller phoned in a bomb threat and police combed through the famous monument looking for suspicious objects. France's BFM television and other French media reported that police found nothing suspicious at the iconic tower, which is France's most popular tourist monument. Paris police headquarters did not respond to calls seeking information.
Elevators whisk tourists to the top of Paris' Eiffel Tower in minutes. Louis Chappell's trip took about an hour. He climbed the stairs, lugging a 30-pound pack in an icy December breeze.
ver las páginas en versión mobile | web
ver las páginas en versión mobile | web
© Copyright 2012, vLex. All Rights Reserved.
Contents in vLex United States
Explore vLex
For Professionals
For Partners
Company
Other interesting searches:
Charles Ryan | crude oil price history | Ponsse Oyj | Kinki University | Banco Nacional | fondo de reserva de la seguridad social | desembolso de dinero | Intérêt à agir | Delito de retención indebida | sujetos del derecho hereditario
