WEBVTT - La Dame de Fer (Eiffel Tower) 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.240 Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:14.680 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Jacques Clark, 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:19.319 and there's Charles Brand and there's Jerry Roland out there, 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:25.000 and this is stuff you should know. That's right, The 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:30.320 Eiffel Tower Edition at Long Last. Yeah, you've been there, right, Yes, 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:34.360 I love the Eiffel Tower. It's great. I don't care 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:37.519 what anyone says about tourist traps. It can be a 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:40.320 little disheartening there at the bottom when you're you know, 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:42.960 they're selling glow noodles and dumb chot keys and stuff 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:46.000 like that. But block all that out in the Eiffel 0:00:46.040 --> 0:00:51.840 Tower is an amazing, amazing thing to behold. It is amazing. Um, 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:53.840 it's also chuck. I don't know if you notice or not, 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:57.000 but it is where I developed my fear of heights. Really, 0:00:57.640 --> 0:01:01.040 it happened on the Eiffel Tower. I was never, for ever, ever, 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:04.080 for a moment in my life afraid of heights until 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:06.080 I went up the Eiffel Tower. And it took me 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:08.440 like an hour to get down because I was so 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:12.199 afraid of falling off, even though it's impossible to fall 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:16.080 off because like there's fencing everywhere, like you can't fall off. 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:18.800 But I mean I must have looked like the biggest 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:22.319 psycho trying to come down the steps of this thing, 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:24.440 and it happened. I was like seventeen. I was with 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:27.560 my dad and sister and you didn't take the elevator. No, 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:29.760 we walked up the first floor and we got to 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:31.480 the top and I looked down and it was just 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:36.160 like lights out that just from the first floor. You were, yeah, 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:39.200 oh yeah, I've never been higher than that, but I've 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:41.840 I've had a fear of heights ever since then. Well, 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:47.640 I think these days. Uh was your dad like man, No, No, 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:50.120 he was never like just kidding um now he just 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:54.800 quietly judged me exactly. The first two floors, I think 0:01:54.800 --> 0:01:58.320 of the only ones you can still walk up, um 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:02.280 by staircase. But uh, previously you could. You could walk 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:04.520 all the way to the tippy top. In fact, you 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:08.359 said ten steps. Yeah. The first couple of weeks the 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:10.239 Eiffel Tower was open. If you wanted to go to 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:12.440 the top, you had to walk up, and that took 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:16.600 an hour for people to climbing stairs. For an hour. No, 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:19.399 I would lose my mind because I'd be up so high. 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:22.080 I would just start crying. Yeah, I mean I would 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:25.720 have had heart failure probably halfway up, so neither one 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:28.160 of us would have made it. It would have Yeah, No, 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:31.400 it would have been a lot for sure. Um And 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:35.120 apparently during well we'll talk about that later. There's a 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:37.040 little teaser for you. You You guys don't even know what 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:39.720 I'm talking about. So when you come up on the 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:42.680 Eiffel Tower, the first thing you're gonna walk upon is 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:47.080 what's known as the Esplanada, which is that that whole 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:50.400 big ground level part of the Eiffel Tower with those 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:57.840 four massive, massive iron pillars at cardinal, north, southeast, and west. Yes, 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:01.360 it's pretty hard to miss, and they cover something like 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:04.360 four acres of footprint between them. I think they're like 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:09.799 fifteen thousand square feet or something like that. More than that. Um, 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:12.959 And like you said, they're all oriented to the cardinal directions, 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:16.239 and if you follow upwards, it's very tough not to 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:20.000 look up when you're at the Eiffel Tower. Up you 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:22.160 you have to be a real jerk, you know, like 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:24.519 Castanza level jerk to go to the Eiffel Tower and 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:27.760 not look up. But um, you would, you would see 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:30.079 that each of these four pillars go up, up, up, 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:32.919 and they come together, um a little further up, a 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:36.680 little above the second platform, and um they go all 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:39.200 the way up in a single joint tower from that 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:42.640 moment on. And it's really kind of neat if you 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:44.960 stop and think about what you're looking at, these four 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:48.960 for um posts kind of starting separately and then coming 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:52.520 together to form this this tower. Um. But it's also 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:56.000 just a marvel of engineering. Like I had always heard 0:03:56.320 --> 0:03:58.880 that was like an engineering masterpiece or whatever. But and 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:02.200 so I researching, and I had no idea exactly with 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:07.200 that man, But it is an masterpiece of engineering for sure. Yeah. 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:09.320 And it's a you know, it's a lovely scene aside 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:12.720 from all the trappings of tourism. Uh. There's a lot 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:16.120 of green space around it, there are other monuments, it's 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:18.800 right there by the river. Uh. It's it's just a 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:21.680 really kind of a lovely scene. Like if you can 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:25.360 manage to find some off hours to go where it's 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:28.719 not quite so crowded, which I have done, Um, you 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:32.240 really get a different sort of experience. But it is 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:33.840 what it is. It's a it's a it's one of 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:36.920 the biggest tourist attractions in the world. So it's like, 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:40.440 you know, you can't go stand on the the popular 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:43.360 edge of the Grand Canyon without being surrounded by hundreds 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:47.200 of people. UM, so don't expect to just sort of 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:49.440 keep that in the back of your head. Sure, I 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:53.680 mean it's the number one, it's the most visited paid 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:56.560 tourist attraction in the world. I didn't know that. I 0:04:56.600 --> 0:04:59.760 believe something like three million people have been there. But 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:03.960 that's just counting the paying customers. That's not including the 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:07.040 cheap skates like me and you, Me and my brother 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:09.640 and sister in law and niece who went and visited 0:05:09.640 --> 0:05:13.240 and didn't pay to go up. Most recently, we just 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:17.240 walked around and kept walking. I've never been up. Oh 0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:21.159 you haven't you just three times? Never even had the 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:24.200 urge to stand in those lines and go to the top. 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:26.880 I'll tell you what, chuck. You just go onto YouTube 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:28.640 and people have filmed it before. You don't have to 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:30.719 don't have to do anything. You don't have to leave 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:33.040 your house. And I saw the crowds on those elevators 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:34.479 and at the top, and I was like, I don't 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:37.039 need this, I don't like it. I'd rather just walk 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:40.320 around and drink some wine and look at it. Yeah, 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:42.880 I mean it's really impressive. Just walking around the basis 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:44.760 of the whole thing, like, you definitely get a feel 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:46.720 for it. And yeah, if you're afraid of heights, it's 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:51.160 all you need to do. Um. So, talking about this thing, 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:54.200 there's there's actually three levels that you can get to. 0:05:54.240 --> 0:05:57.039 There's that first level where I lost my mind. Then 0:05:57.640 --> 0:05:59.640 it goes further up to a second level, and then 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:01.720 there's a third level and third levels like almost nine 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:05.400 feet in the air. It's about three a little less 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:08.560 than three ds that that third platform. And at each 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:11.400 of these platforms there's like stuff to do. It's not 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:14.599 just like a steel platform that you step onto and 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:18.200 look out and that's it. There's restaurants, there's shops on 0:06:18.279 --> 0:06:21.000 that top platform where so many people apparently like two 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:25.840 people a day propose. Um. There's like a champagne bar. Um. 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:28.720 It's there's just a lot of really neat, little interesting 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:31.839 details that make the Eiffel Tower the Eiffel Tower. But 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:34.159 even more than that, even more than just this the 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:37.440 you know, the glow noodles that you can only get 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:41.280 there at the Eiffel Tower. Um, what makes it so 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:45.120 unique is just the design of it, the execution of it, 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:48.560 the fact that it's still around, and then also um, 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:50.480 some of the things that have happened, Like it's it's 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:54.440 an iconic structure, and when that many people flock to 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:57.680 it every year for more than a century, Um, it's 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:01.480 going to have like a pretty rich history to you. Yeah, 0:07:01.600 --> 0:07:04.160 I mean, um, you talked about the restaurants. If you 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:07.440 want to eat at the nicest restaurant, it'll be the 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:10.280 Jewels Urn And I was just kind of curious about 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:12.760 their menu. It looks very good. But it looks so good, 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:15.840 it is pricey. It is your your seven course dinner 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:18.920 tasting menu is gonna run you about two seventy five 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:24.240 bucks each euros dollars buck a Roogs. Uh. And that's 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:27.320 without its two thirty euros I think. And that's without 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:30.320 wine or anything like. I think it's without wine. It 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:33.600 didn't say anything about with a pairing, but um, it 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:36.640 only goes up from there. So I imagine it's quite 0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:39.600 a dining experience. Maybe one day I'll save about my 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:42.840 bucks and make a reservation. Because if you do have 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:46.560 a reservation, you can you can kind of skip most 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:48.320 of the line and go straight there, which is kind 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:50.640 of nice. Yeah if you Yeah, you can just take 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:53.280 an elevator straight to the Jewels Burn restaurant. I'm sad 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:55.800 because I'll probably never eat there because I'll be too 0:07:55.800 --> 0:07:58.880 scared to go up. Yeah. OK, care she can go 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:02.440 to another great restaurant and just pretend you're off the ground. 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:05.240 But that's the point. I don't want to pretend like 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:07.920 your feet are firmly planted on the ground. And another 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:11.000 cool thing that they have is uh, and this is 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:12.640 something that I didn't know because I've never been up 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:17.760 there is uh, Gustav Eiffel built himself an apartment up top. 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:22.440 And this thing has not really been touched since then. 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:24.880 I mean they've they've kept it in order, but um, 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:27.520 I think ed said they had recreated it. But apparently 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:31.040 that's the real thing that has just sort of left untouched. Um. 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:34.520 It's got a living room with a table, couch, a piano, 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:37.920 grand piano, a few desks, kitchen, bathroom. There is no 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:41.120 bedroom and by all accounts he probably did not sleep there. 0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:44.680 But back in the day in Paris, it became quite 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:48.160 the talk of the town and just made um rich. 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:52.760 Parisians just seethed with jealousy, and he was offered huge, 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:56.040 huge sums of money from people just to like airbnb 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:58.640 it for a night, and he declined every single time. 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:01.080 He never allowed anyone to rent it out and spend 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:03.400 the night. Well, you know, one of the things that 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:06.319 I keep running up against during research of the Eiffel 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:10.400 Towers that it was a democratizing structure, because up to 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:12.880 the point when the Eiffel Tower opened to the public, 0:09:13.240 --> 0:09:15.360 if you wanted a really amazing view of Paris, you 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:17.720 basically had to rent a hot air balloon ride that 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:19.760 was your your one shot at it. And you had 0:09:19.760 --> 0:09:22.000 to be very very rich to do that, to go 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:24.880 up in a balloon, and and so I mean that's 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:27.440 just the way it was until Gustave Eiffel and then 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:30.160 the the leaders of Paris and France came along as 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:33.800 it was to build this three tower um and open 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:35.520 it to the public. I mean, yeah, you had to pay, 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:38.440 but it was a reasonable price and just about everybody 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:40.880 could afford it. And and now you could walk up 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:42.800 and see these amazing views of Paris that to that 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:45.280 point had been reserved only for the very wealthy, which 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:48.079 again I just keep seeing it referred to as a 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:53.600 democratizing structure. All right, So let's talk about the man himself, right, Yeah, 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:58.079 Gustave eiffel Um, who is widely credit is the guy 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:02.199 who created this this structure, but it was definitely a collaboration, 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:05.000 and I don't he never seemed to make any any 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:08.160 secret of that. But he was definitely the head cheese 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:10.120 on the whole thing. But he didn't create this whole 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:13.599 thing by himself. I think you mean the head brisk 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:18.480 I met head cheese cross, so he was. I can 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:21.240 never get over that word. Um, it's terrible. He was 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:24.360 born in eighteen thirty two and was an engineer by trade. 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:29.920 I went to engineering school at uh cal Tech. Now 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:31.559 I thought you were going to do that. You want 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:33.960 me to say it? Okay? He went to the Cole 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:39.599 Central des Arts manufacturers. That's right, and uh he was 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:42.680 well regarded as an engineer all over France and Europe. 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:46.679 Um had a consultancy firm, had his own workshop, had 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:50.320 his own construction company. And it should be noted that 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:53.720 he was an engineer first and foremost. He was not 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:58.360 an architect. He was obsessed with function um and mechanics 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:01.480 and strength of any structure he built, because he built 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:04.680 things like railroad bridges, where he really needed it to 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:08.480 be strong and maybe pretty. Second, um, he did like 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:10.480 things to look nice. It's not like that's all he 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:14.040 cared about. But he was very big into structure and 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:16.960 form and function. Uh. And was also a big believer 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:20.440 in iron as opposed to steal, which you know, this 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:22.480 one could have been all steel. So it was around 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:26.800 could he steal? But for something this big, he was like, 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:30.000 iron is what it has to be built out of. Well, 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:32.640 that's what he was like, you know, that was his trade, 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:36.000 Like he knew iron, and had he moved into steel, 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:37.760 he would have been out of his depth. This is 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:40.480 not a project where one should be out of their depth, right. 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:44.240 But then also steel would have been prohibitively expensive. It 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:47.040 was still a pretty new technology, so I thought that 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:50.120 was another reason he didn't use steel. But so as iron, 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:52.880 and it's a specific kind of iron, it's um puddled 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:57.920 raw iron to where during the the the smelting process 0:11:57.960 --> 0:12:02.160 you actually swirl it would keeps the impurities from crystallizing 0:12:02.200 --> 0:12:04.719 into the structure of the of the iron. So it's 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:07.840 actual raw iron. That's what the the Eiffel Tower is 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:10.600 made out of. But if you put those two things together, 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:13.960 that he's an engineer, not an artist, and his his 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:16.880 his expertise is in iron. All of it kind of 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:20.040 culminates into this the Eiffel Tower. It's like it makes 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:22.440 total sense what you're looking at, Like it couldn't have 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:26.559 been anything else. Um. But it also kind of underscores 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:29.000 just how much of a masterpiece it is under those 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:32.760 two constraints. Yeah, and he was Another little fun fact 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:36.560 is when the person that was charged with building the 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:40.199 internal structure of the Statue of Liberty died, he came 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:43.400 in as an emergency replacement and he took on that 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:46.400 project and he built that internal lattice work the Great 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:50.160 Statue of Liberty. Uh. And he also financed the Eiffel 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:55.040 Tower largely um. The Paris and France said hey, let's 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:58.840 let's have this contest because we have a World's Fair 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:00.800 coming up in eighteen nineteen nine and we want a big, 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:07.640 big tower. What did I say, eighty nine? And he Uh, 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:11.360 he got one point five million francs from the state 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:14.080 is seed money, but it was gonna cost about six 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:17.280 point five million. And this became one of the first 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:20.360 sort of Uh, what we look at now is how 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:23.000 you finance projects like this one of the first ones 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:26.959 to do it like this public private partnership. Well, yeah, 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:30.520 I mean he went out in and issued shares. Uh, 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:34.040 he started an LLC, issued two kinds of shares and 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:37.199 raised the other five million francs to build this thing, 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:42.520 and as a result had twenty years um to recoup 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:46.559 money from ticket sales and souvenirs and champagne bottles and 0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:49.600 stuff like that, in which he would pay the stuff back, 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:52.800 and in that time he and his shareholders made a 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:55.160 lot of money in the process. Yeah. But what I 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:57.560 saw was he was such a good businessman that he 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:00.640 managed to get the you know, all the all the 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:04.160 proceeds from you know, admission and concessions and all that 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:08.800 stuff for twenty years from the exposition founders. But then 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:10.680 he also with the people he went and raised the 0:14:10.679 --> 0:14:13.000 money from, they didn't get a huge cut of that either. 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:16.319 So he made out like a total bandit in this deal. Um, 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:19.360 he didn't screw anybody over, swindle anybody. It was just 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:22.600 a really good deal that he made for himself. But 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:25.120 it required a lot of vision to like he you know, 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:27.080 he put his own his own took us in his 0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:31.920 own reputation on the line. Um with this one big project. Yeah, 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:33.240 it may have been the kind of thing where they 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:35.840 made a certain amount of money back that was kept. 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:38.400 I don't really know, because his shareholders made a lot 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:40.600 of money to like you, if you invested in the 0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:42.800 Eiffel Tower, you didn't do it out of the goodness 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:45.280 of your heart. You made some dough sure, sure, but 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:47.320 I think there was a lot of a certain amount 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:51.080 of like um municipal pride in in that project, especially 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:54.320 with the proponents of the project UM and the whole 0:14:54.440 --> 0:14:58.080 the whole design contest to to create an iconic structure 0:14:58.160 --> 0:15:01.680 for the ten eighty nine World Fair in Paris. Um. 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:05.360 Apparently it was at first kind of vague, and I 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:08.640 even saw that it was um Uh. It was Eiffel 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:11.920 himself who suggested that they have this design competition, and 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:14.160 if that isn't the case, he at the very least 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:17.720 kind of guided the details of what they were looking 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:21.400 for until it basically was his tower. Um. The other 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:25.560 big competitor was a guy named um Jules Bourdet, and 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:29.400 he wanted to make his three D tower out of stone, 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:33.680 which was total insanity. Would have killed everybody it would 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:36.200 have It would have crumbled immediately. I don't know if 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:38.800 they ever would have even been able to successfully finish it. 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:42.960 Apparently the there there's a big push and pull intention 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:50.120 between Eiffel's iron and boot Boord Bourdet's stone in this side, 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:54.120 this kind of transition between modern and traditional and modern 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:58.480 in the form of Eiffel's tower one out. That's right. 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:01.120 I think we should take a break, okay and talk 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:04.600 about what happened there in the lead up to nine 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:38.760 right after this. All right, so you mentioned that it 0:16:38.800 --> 0:16:42.360 was a collaboration, uh, and not just in the building 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:45.320 of it obviously, which I think range from a hundred 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:47.400 and fifty to three hundred people at any given time, 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:50.680 right little know, In fact, Eiffel did not build it himself, 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:54.800 saying he did not, Uh, it was designed by other 0:16:54.840 --> 0:17:00.480 people to The initial design was by Emil Boy new 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:06.760 Gear and Maurice Coclean. And you know, apparently this first 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:09.199 design wasn't just like with anything else. It's not like 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:12.000 they drew it up on paper and that was it. Um. 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:14.639 It wasn't that great. It was four iron pillars that 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:17.800 met near the top like we're sort of familiar worth 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:21.560 and it was connected by grids, but it wasn't that hot. 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:24.040 They went back to the drawing board, sent it to 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:29.800 an architect named Stephen uh Sevestre. You, I was gonna 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:31.880 say earlier, you don't need me at all, but yeah 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:36.040 you do, Salvesta. Sure is that how you say it? Sure? 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:41.520 All right? That inspires a lot of confidence. Um. And 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:46.600 he made it really freely, added a lot of Victorian flourishes. 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:49.360 They got it back from him and said, why don't 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:50.879 we meet in the middle, get rid of a lot 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:53.439 of this stuff, keep some of the stuff. And what 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:57.400 they ended up with was, um, sort of a magical 0:17:57.400 --> 0:18:00.919 little compromise on the final design. Yeah. It was, like 0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:04.560 I said, a real collaboration. Um. And what came out 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:08.760 of that collaboration was just something something really amazing. UM. 0:18:08.840 --> 0:18:11.280 And the fact that each each group or each person 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:15.040 or you know, each everyone involved, they all worked for Eiffel. Um. 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:19.040 The first two were his chief chief engineers, and uh, 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:22.680 where is going to call him? Sylvester was his chief architect, 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:25.280 I believe, and then along with Eiffel himself, all of 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:27.639 them kind of adding to and subtracting and like I 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:30.320 don't like that or I do like this. It came 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:35.720 to fruition. UM, and he Eiffel purchased the designs from 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:39.920 his employees, so that he personally owned the design outright, 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:43.680 which allowed him to go, um, raise money himself and 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:47.720 uh take in all of the the admission and concession 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:49.720 fees that he was going to break in over the 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:53.919 next twenty years too. Yeah, man, I wonder, I don't know. 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:58.400 I looked up the brand worth and and the only 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:01.200 thing I could find was from like seven years ago. 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:05.000 In the Eiffel brand at that time was worth like 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:10.120 four hundred and thirty billion dollars euros. As I saw 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:12.119 that too, Oh, I thought that was in dollars. Was 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:14.640 that in euros? I'm pretty sure it was in euros, 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:18.040 But it's I mean, that is just a crazy amount 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:19.800 of money. And it's a shame that he couldn't work 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:22.679 out some sort of a stake in that early on 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:26.639 that could have been passed down to his heirs. Yeah, 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:28.720 because he he was able to break that in for 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:30.840 just the first twenty years. And the reason why twenty 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:33.240 years is such a significant number, Chuck, I did not 0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:36.840 know this, but the original part of that design competition 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:40.120 was that this this structure, the winning structure, was going 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:42.600 to only stand for twenty years and then it would 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:46.040 be disassembled to make way for something new, and that 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:50.000 was really in the tradition of World's fairs. Um, it's 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:54.000 very rare for any structures to remain for very long, 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:56.320 more than a couple of decades after a World's Fair, 0:19:56.600 --> 0:20:00.240 because they're just they're meant to be temporary. They're to 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:02.359 be part of the world's fair and to commemorate the 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:04.879 world's fair. But then you have more World's Fairs that 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:07.679 come along, and progress is to be made, and so 0:20:07.760 --> 0:20:10.280 the old structures get torn down and new ones get 0:20:10.440 --> 0:20:13.919 um built in their place. So the Eiffel Tower was 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:17.560 going to just live for twenty years and then be disassembled. Yeah, 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:19.399 I bet you that does have something to do with it, 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:23.840 because if you look at any most World's Fair structures 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:26.600 over the years, they do end up looking very dated, 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:28.199 Like this is the only one I can think of 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:33.240 that really had this indelible iconic design, um, And they 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:37.399 probably just don't want that reminder of you know, the 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:41.320 Knoxville World's Fair right years later. It looks really kind 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:44.480 of silly, right, Well, the Sun's Fear is still around, weird, 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:49.960 is it? Yes, as far as I know, Yeah, yeah, 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:52.560 it was Knoxville with the sun's fear. I'm almost positive. 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:55.240 But there was another building built. I mean, like, if 0:20:55.240 --> 0:20:57.080 you look at some of the buildings that were built 0:20:57.119 --> 0:21:01.640 for this Paras exposition in eighty nine, Um, these are 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:06.520 like major, huge buildings that today we would spend untold 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:10.640 number count like countless money to to preserve and keep 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:14.280 from crumbling. Um, they just torn down twenty years. There's 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:18.640 one called the Gallery Day Machine UM, and it some 0:21:19.200 --> 0:21:23.560 critics say that it was actually an even greater masterpiece 0:21:23.600 --> 0:21:27.760 of um iron work and modernity than the Eiffel Tower itself. 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:32.400 They tore it down into Yeah, so that's just kind 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:34.080 of how it was with the World Fare, and that's 0:21:34.119 --> 0:21:35.840 how it was supposed to be with the Eiffel Tower. 0:21:35.920 --> 0:21:38.760 But if you start to dive into how the Eiffel 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:43.520 Tower was constructed, it's abundantly clear that Um Gustav Eiffel 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:46.639 never intended for his tower to be taken down. He 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:53.359 built that thing Ford tough man. If you want to 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:56.239 make a French person's head spend, tell him that the 0:21:56.280 --> 0:22:00.760 Eiffel Tower is built forward tough Oh my go I 0:22:00.760 --> 0:22:03.040 was trying to think of a French car. Uh, what's 0:22:03.080 --> 0:22:09.560 the one? Yeah, n all tough the tough. So they 0:22:09.600 --> 0:22:13.920 start construction in January seven. Um. Obviously that's a pretty 0:22:13.960 --> 0:22:16.600 tight timetable to pull something like this off before the 0:22:16.600 --> 0:22:20.400 World's Fair, and it came down to the wire. But uh, 0:22:20.440 --> 0:22:25.640 they started um building the tower itself in July seven. 0:22:26.280 --> 0:22:29.160 They were building you know, that might not um make sense, 0:22:29.160 --> 0:22:31.080 but they were doing those foundations. It took a long 0:22:31.440 --> 0:22:34.119 time just to get the foundation work done. And he 0:22:34.160 --> 0:22:39.000 had a manufacturing um warehouse and facility about six kilometers away, 0:22:39.040 --> 0:22:41.760