Gustave Eiffel

Civil engineer and architect

Expertise

Structural, Bridges, Construction, Design

Location

France

My highlights

Designed the iconic Eiffel tower

Built the Statue of Liberty

Master of material economy

Why you might have heard of Gustave Eiffel

Gustave Eiffel was the ‘magician of iron’ responsible for some of the most iconic metallic structures in the world – the Parisian tower that bears his own name and the Statue of Liberty counted among these.

The civil engineer and architect mastered structural metallic work. He was also one of the first engineers to employ compressed-air caissons (or watertight retaining structures that enable underwater work) in bridge building.

Eiffel developed methods to ship prefabricated and dismantled structures around the globe, which saw his structures built in countries such as the United States, Spain, Brazil, Uruguay, Peru, Mexico, and Chile.

This is how the Statue of Liberty was shipped and then built in New York City, USA.

Eiffel also created marvels in terms of material economy.

His greatest achievement, the Eiffel tower, is made up of 12,000 different components and 2,500,000 rivets, all created to withstand wind pressure.

If melted down, the tower’s metal would only fill up its base about two and a half inches deep!

Can one think that because we are engineers, beauty does not preoccupy us or that we do not try to build beautiful, as well as solid and long lasting structures? Aren't the genuine functions of strength always in keeping with unwritten conditions of harmony?
Gustave Eiffel, as translated in Henry Petroski's Remaking the World: Adventures in Engineering (1998)

Learn more about Eiffel

Education

Gustave Eiffel studied at the Lycée Royal in Dijon, located in the Burgundy region of France.

He earned his baccalaureates in science and humanities, with an interest in construction appearing since an early age.

After acing his entrance exams for engineering colleges, he was offered places at the ‘École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures’ (College of Art and Manufacturing) and ‘École Polytechnique’ (Polytechnical College), both renowned colleges in France.

He chose the former and graduated in 1855.

After graduating from the Parisian college, he began to specialise in metal construction, particularly bridges.

Career

A few years after graduating from college, in 1858, Eiffel directed the construction of an iron railway bridge over the river Garonne in Bordeaux.

He was the chief engineer of Compagnie Belge de Matérieles de Chemin de Fer (Belgian Railway Material Company) until 1865.

By 1866, Eiffel had set up his own company specialising in metal structural work.

In 1867, he designed the arched Gallery of Machines for the Paris Exhibition of that same year and his reputation as an excellent engineer and architect had been solidified.

In the following years, he was commissioned for projects around the world, including countries like Egypt and Chile.

His innovative method of shipping prefabricated cantilever constructions to be assembled onsite made some of these projects possible.

In 1877, he built a career-marking viaduct in Porto, Portugal, that featured a 525ft (160m) steel arch.

In 1884, he created an even greater arch of the same style for the Garabit viaduct in southern France. This one had a 540ft (162m) span.

For many years, it was the highest bridge in the world, 400ft (120m) over the river.

A few years earlier, in 1879, Eiffel parted from bridge construction to design and build the movable dome for the astronomical observatory in Nice, France.

That same year, the internal engineer hired to build the Statue of Liberty, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, unexpectedly died and Eiffel was hired to replace him on the project.

Eiffel created a new system for the statue that supported the copper ‘skin’ with a skeletal structure, as opposed to weight supports.

According to Biography, Eiffel and his team ‘built the statue from the ground up and then dismantled it for its journey to New York Harbour’. The statue opened in 1886.

The Eiffel Tower

By far his most famous contribution to engineering was the Eiffel Tower, which was commissioned to feature as the centrepiece of the 1889 Exposition Universelle.

The work on the tower began in 1887, and it took two years to build the 984ft (300m) masterpiece that is now considered a work of art.

In 1887, Eiffel agreed to build the locks of the Panama Canal. This undertaking ended in the biggest financial scandal of the century.

With his honour and reputation compromised, Eiffel withdrew from business and dedicated the final 30 years of his life to science.

He used the magnum opus that was the Eiffel Tower to conduct a number of experiments.

He tested wind resistance, set up a meteorological observation post and used the tower as a giant aerial mast for the new technology on the block, radio broadcasting.

At the same time, he pursued aerodynamics research, building a wind tunnel in the tower’s base and then a much larger one on Rue Boileau in Paris, in 1909.

He also built the first aerodynamics-specific laboratory in Auteuil, outside Paris, where he worked during World War I. In 1921, he gave the laboratory to the state.

Personal life

Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel was born on December 15, 1832 in Dijon, France.

He was the eldest child of François Alexandre Boenickhausen dit Eiffel and Catherine Melanie Moineuse.

Gustave’s family came from a region near the Eifel Mountains and adopted the surname ‘Eiffel’.

His father was ex-military and served the French army as an administrator.

His mother worked in her family’s charcoal business, which Eiffel’s father eventually joined.

Since his parents were busy with the business, Eiffel spent a lot of his childhood with his grandmother.

In 1862, he married Marie Gaudelet. They were married for 15 years and had five children together: Albert, Claire, Edouard, Laure and Valentine.

Marie caught pneumonia and passed away in 1887. Eiffel never remarried.

On December 27, 1923, at the age of 91, Gustave Eiffel died in his mansion on ‘Rue Rabelais’ in Paris.

He was buried in the family tomb at the Levallois-Perret cemetery.

Fascinating facts

Building the Eiffel Tower directed Gustave Eiffel’s interest in the direction of aerodynamics, and he used the structure for several experiments. His work at the tower influenced some of the first aviators, including the Wright Brothers.
Eiffel wrote several books on aerodynamics, most notably Resistance of the Air and Aviation, first published in 1907.
Eiffel turned his interest to meteorology in his final years, studying the subject at length before his death in 1923.
He made a mark of his excellence in other countries including the United States, Spain, Brazil, Uruguay, Peru, Mexico and Chile, among others.
In 1913, the Smithsonian Institution honoured him with the Samuel P. Langley Medal for Aerodromics award.
He was an Officer of the Legion of Honour in France and knight and commander of many foreign forces that honoured him and his work.

Notable projects

The Eiffel Tower in Paris.
The Statue of Liberty in New York City.
The twin viaducts in Porto, Portugal, and Garabit, from the Cantal region of France.
The dome on the Nice observatory.
The Bordeaux railway bridge.
The Iron Palace of Orizaba, in Veracruz, Mexico.
The cathedral of San Pedro de Tacna in Tacna, Peru.
The Grand Hotel Traian in Iaşi, Romania.
Konak Pier in İzmir, Turkey.
The cathedral of Santa María in Chiclayo, Peru.