THE EIFFEL TOWER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1295, 10 September 1914, Page 4

THE EIFFEL TOWER.

HIGHEST OF HUMAN STRUCTURES. THE MODERN TOWER OF BABEL. Though erected more than a quarter of a century ago, the Eiffel Tower still remains one of the wonders of the worid —the highest structure ever erected by the hand of man. Even the latest New York sky-scraper—the Woolworth Building—is two hundred and fifty feet less in height. The Eiffel Tower is an equal distance higher than Mount Victoria (Wellington), and nearly as high as the summit of the Tinakori Hills at Mount Etako, where the wireless station stands. In actual figures the Eiffel Tower is 300 metres high, or within 18 feet of 1,000 feet —the height of a mountain. It surpasses the obelisk at Washington by 429 feet, and the pinnacle of St. Paul’s Cathedral by SSO feet. It is a steel tower, with a framework consisting essentially of four uprights linked together by steel lattice work similar to that of the great Main Trunk railway viaducts, but on a vastly larger scale. The four uprights rise from the corners of a square measuring zoo metres along each side. Thus the area covered by its base is nearly 2j£ acres. These uprights are supported on huge piers of masonry and concrete, the foundations for which were carried down in caissons to a depth ot from 30 to 50 feet. At first these uprights curve upwards gracefully at an angle of 45 degrees ; then they gradually become straighter, until they unite in a single shaft more than half-way up. There are three platforms at different stages on the way up, and a lantern at the top. The work of building the structure was begun on 28th January, 1887, and the full height was reached on the 13th March, 1889, ready for the Great Paris Exhibition of 18S9, where it was the principal show feature. The tower is now used for many scientific purposes. It is a great wireless station, from which time is sent out to ships at sea thousands of miles around. It is also the chief meteorological observatory of Paris. It was designed and constructed by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, who had already bad a wide experience in the construction of large metal bridges, and who designed the huge sluices for the Panama Canal when it was under the French Company. The Eiffel is a typical piece ot French engineering, a monument of strength, combined with grace.