His buildings can be found on all five continents. But most people only associate the French civil engineer and entrepreneur with the Eiffel Tower named after him. His involvement in numerous other projects, including the construction of bridges, train stations and other iron structures, earned him the nickname “Iron Wizard.”
Gustave Eiffel was born on December 15, 1832 in Dijon in eastern France. Another name is recorded on his birth certificate: “Gustave Bönickhausen, called Eiffel”.An ancestor on his father’s side, who had emigrated from the Rhineland to France a hundred years earlier, had named himself after his new home, the Eifel – but with two F. Gustave Eiffel’s father served as a soldier under Napoleon and later found work as an accountant in the lumberyard. and later in his wife’s coal trading company.
Gustave Eiffel as a rising star in the construction industry
After graduating from high school, the young Eiffel moved to Paris and prepared for the entrance exam the best engineering school in the country, the Paris École Polytechnique. After failing the oral part of the exam, he instead attended the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, an industrially oriented engineering college. There he completed his engineering studies and obtained a degree in civil engineering. His training laid the foundation for his later career as a renowned civil engineer and entrepreneur.
Eiffel quickly found jobs and took on smaller construction sites. In 1858 he was given the opportunity to direct the construction of a 500 meter long railway bridge near Bordeaux, which opened in July 1860. This Bridge is considered his first building. Instead of designing the bridge as a solid wall girder as usual, Eiffel opted for a lightweight truss structure for the superstructure. A preference that he maintained in the future. The successfully completed, demanding contract contributed to his good reputation in the industry.
In 1866, at the age of 34, Eiffel founded his own business in Levallois-Perret near Paris. He realized various steel construction projects, such as the Commentry-Gannat railway line in Auvergne. His first works for the world exhibition followed in the same year.
From Porto to New York: projects in more and more countries
Eiffel was over the borders France asked beyond. From 1872 to 1874 he worked in South America. He was sometimes involved in the planning of the main train stations in Santiago de Chile and La Paz in Bolivia and built various cathedrals. In 1875 he built it Westbahnhof in Budapest, he constructed it in 1877 Maria Pia Bridge in Porto, Portugal – the bridge with the longest cantilever steel arch in the world.
In 1879 he constructed the internal support structure for the Statue of Liberty. The French gave the statue, designed by the French sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, to the Americans – to commemorate their common alliance during the American Revolutionary War. Seven years later, on October 28, 1886, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated and has stood ever since on a small island in the middle of New York Harbor.
Scandals surrounding failed construction projects and corruption lead to the decline of his career
For the 1889 World’s Fair, Eiffel designed and built what was then the tallest structure in the world: the Eiffel Tower. The 312 meter high tower was named after Eiffel during his lifetime. The Eiffel Tower was not originally planned to be a permanent structure. However, it was so successful and fascinating that it was preserved and became a symbol of Paris and France.
Eiffel’s imposing buildings and constructions became more and more one Revolution in metal construction and he himself received the nickname “Iron Wizard”. However, his career went downhill at the end of the century: failed construction projects and the corruption scandal surrounding the Panama Canal, which he helped to construct, affected his reputation. As a result, he retired as an entrepreneur and instead devoted himself to science. In old age He died in Paris at the age of 91 and was born on the Buried in Levallois-Perret Cemetery.