Fascinating Eiffel Tower fact!

This dizzying Eiffel Tower trivia will make the iconic landmark even more interesting!

Did you know that the Eiffel Tower was constructed with the intention of demolishing it after 2 decades? Its construction ended on 31st March 1889 after two years of hard labour of 50 engineers and 300 workers. It was built as a temporary attraction for the 1889 Universal Exhibition of Paris, to mark the 100th year anniversary of the French Revolution. The world famous landmark has 18,000 metal composite parts held together by 2.5 million rivets and has a total weight of 10,100 tons. If you thought these facts were interesting, wait till we tell you something about its height!

It is a known fact that the Eiffel Tower is 300 metres tall and if you include the height of the antennas, then it would be 324 metres tall. However, did you know that Eiffel Tower shrinks and expands in height depending upon the weather? When the weather is hot, the kinetic energy of the molecules of wrought-iron increases. This makes the molecules and atoms move about. So, the result is that the metal expands with heat and shrinks when it is cooled down.

This phenomenon usually affects most concrete structures like a building, a highway, or a bridge and hence, the engineers have to ensure they keep the effect of changing weather on the structure in mind, while designing it.

Interestingly, the height of the Eiffel Tower shrinks in winter time by about 8cm and it expands to about 15cm during summer time. In the summer of 1976, the tower grew by almost 18cm. So the next time someone asks you about the height of Eiffel Tower, you better ask them the season first!