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Date opened to public: May 15, 1889, during Universal Exposition celebrating 100 th anniversary of the French Revolution.

Owners: The City of Paris

Height: 324 meters (with antenna)

First Floor: 57.63m
Second Floor: 115.75m
Third Floor: 276.13m

Weight: Metal framework weight: 7,300 tons

Total weight: 10,000 tons

Dimensions of Base: 125m square

Number of steps to the top: 1,665 from the ground to the top (however, steps from the second floor to the top are closed to the public).

Movement: Wind force causes the top of the tower to sway 6 - 7 centimeters

Visibility on a clear day: 67 kilometers (42 miles).

Tallest Structure in the World: 1889-1930 (until Chrysler Building ).

2nd Tallest Structure in the World: 1930-1932 (Until Empire State Bldg).

Number of names of French scientists written on the sides of the tower: 72.

Construction: 1887 - 1889 (Two years, two months and two days).

Rivets: 2,500,000.

Steel pieces: 18,038.

Number of steel workers: 300.

Number of workers killed during construction: 1 (He was showing off for his girlfriend at the end of the day).

Cost to build: 7,800,000 gold francs (in 1889).

Contractor: Gustave Eiffel.

Engineers: Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier.

Architect: Stephen Sauvestre.

Workmen: 50 engineers

100 ironworkers
121 workers at construction site

Number of visitors since opening: 204,381,152 by the end of 2002.

Electricity: 7,500,000 kilowatt hours per year.

Water: 65,000 m³ per year.

Elevators: Approximately 100,000 kilometers traveled per year.

Paint: Repainted every 5 years, requiring 50 tons of paint.

First radio transmission: 1918.

First TV transmission: 1957.

Illumination:

1889: During the evening of the tower's inauguration, 10,000 gas street lamps adorned the steeple and platforms. Two projectors on the tower top illuminated the other Parisian monuments below. The blue, white and red beacon lights were considered the most powerful in the world.

1900: Electricity arrives at the Eiffel Tower, as 3,200 lamps spotlight its framework and decorative arches.

1925-1936: André Citroën adds the first decorative lighting display to the tower. As an ad campaign, the name Citroën is sculpted from 250,000 colored lamps, which adorns three sides of the tower and is visible 30 kilometers away.

1985, New Year's Eve: Inauguration of a new lighting system, the final phase of a comprehensive restoration program, initiated by the city of Paris in 1980. The gold-toned, twinkling lighting system comprises 352 sodium lamps mounted on the inside of the tower.

2000, New Year's Day: The Eiffel Tower is adorned in festive lighting composed of 20,000 spots and a beacon projector on the tower top.

2001, New Year's Day: For the New Year, blue filters are placed over the lamps, allowing the sparkling lights to take on blue sapphire tones.

2001, July 14: The glittering light system is dismantled.

2003, June 21: The Eiffel Tower is once again covered in diamond-sparkling lights that are displayed for five minutes, every hour on the hour, from dusk until 2 a.m. (1 a.m. in winter).

The two light beams at the top of the tower can be seen up to 80km away. The beacon is composed of four marine-type, motorized projectors, operated by automatically piloted computer programs. Their rotation sweep is 90°, so they are synchronized to form a double beam in a cross that pivots around 360°. The 6,000-watt lamps, which last for approximately 1200 hours, are cooled to prevent overheating and also heated when the temperatures drop below zero centigrade and the lights are off.

Miscellaneous Facts:

Scam: In 1925, con artist Victor Lustig sells the Eiffel Tower for scrap.

Tallest title lost: In 1929, the Tower loses the title of the world's tallest structure when the Chrysler Building is completed in New York.

Bomb: In 1986, during a period when Paris was suffering a wave of terrorist activity, a janitor discovers a bomb at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Fortunately the bomb is defused - as it was powerful enough to have blown off the whole top of the tower.

Strike: In 1996, the Eiffel Tower is closed for five days when workers go on strike demanding staff parking facilities and a shorter workweek. The strike is thought to have cost the tower more than $500,000.

Mata Hari: During WWI, the tower's radiotelegraphic center is used to intercept enemy messages, one of which led to the arrest and execution of the infamous Danish dancer and spy, Mata Hari.

Hitler: When Hitler visits occupied Paris in 1940, the lift cables of the tower are cut by the French so he would have to climb the 1,792 steps to the summit. The part needed to repair them was allegedly impossible to obtain because of the war, though it was working again within hours of the departure of the Nazis. Hitler chose to stay on the ground.

Source: Official Eiffel Tower Website at www.tour-eiffel.fr

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Karen Plumley is a regular contributor to Paris Eiffel Tower News and other tourism websites. Should you want her to write for you, please reach her at  .