Do Individuals Make History?: The history of the Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower was created for the Exposition Universelle of 1889. It was originally designed by two senior engineers that worked for the Compagnie des Etablissements Eiffel, but was embellished (by various people), until Gustave Eiffel supported the project. The design was exhibited at the Exhibition of Decorative Arts in the autumn of 1884 under the company name and Eiffel then presented the project to the 'Société des Ingénieurs Civils' and told them that the tower would symbolise
"not only the art of the modern engineer, but also the century of Industry and Science in which we are living, and for which the way was prepared by the great scientific movement of the eighteenth century and by the Revolution of 1789, to which this monument will be built as an expression of France's gratitude." (1889 was the centenary of the French Revolution).
In 1886, when Édouard Lockroy was appointed Minister of Trade, a budget was passed on the Exposition and on the 1rst of May, Lockroy announced that the Eiffel Tower would be the centre piece.
The Eiffel Tower was the first substantial iron-based tower in the world, influencing all sky-scrapers that were to come. It took 2 years 2 months and 5 days to complete, a record time, as it had used pre-fabricated metal pieces. In total, the tower was made out of 18000 metal parts, 2.5 million rivets and weighed 7000 tonnes.

Overall, just over a million dollars, but Eiffel had to pay 80% of it, as the government refused to pay for more. In fact, the plan was disliked by many Parisians. Indeed, a "Committee of Three Hundred" (one member for each metre of the tower's height) was formed, led by the prominent architect Charles Garnier and including some of the most important figures of the French arts establishment, including Adolphe Bouguereau, Guy de Maupassant, Charles Gounod and Jules Massenet: a petition was sent to Charles Alphand, the Minister of Works and Commissioner for the Exposition, and was published by Le Temps.

"We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and passionate devotees of the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, protest with all our strength, with all our indignation in the name of slighted French taste, against the erection…of this useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower … To bring our arguments home, imagine for a moment a giddy, ridiculous tower dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack, crushing under its barbaric bulk Notre Dame, the Tour Saint-Jacques, the Louvre, the Dome of les Invalides, the Arc de Triomphe, all of our humiliated monuments will disappear in this ghastly dream. And for twenty years…we shall see stretching like a blot of ink the hateful shadow of the hateful column of bolted sheet metal"

Many found the tower garish and vulgar, and found that it clashed with the gorgeous Paris.
For 40 years, the Eiffel Tower was the tallest tower in the world and after only 5 months it had already received 2 million visitors, which enabled Eiffel to repay the loans he had made.
Although the structure was supposed to only stay for 20 years, it was soon discovered that it was the perfect site for a radio antenna, and was used throughout WWI, said to have hindered the German advance into Paris greatly.

A touch of FACTS: