The Tower That Divided Paris

Gustave Eiffel's tower had risen amid controversy that split Parisian society. "We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects, passionate lovers of the intact beauty of Paris, protest with all our strength against this useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower," read the petition signed by Charles Gounod, Guy de Maupassant, Alexandre Dumas fils, and hundreds of other cultural luminaries. They called it a "gigantic black factory chimney" that would crush Paris beneath its "barbarous mass."

But others saw poetry in iron. Blaise Cendrars, then a young boy visiting from Switzerland, later recalled: "I spent hours with my neck craned back, watching the workers like insects climbing the growing lattice. They were writing a poem in the sky, a poem of the future." The tower's construction became public theater. Parisians gathered daily to watch its growth, taking bets on whether it would stand or collapse.

Eiffel himself embodied Belle Époque contradictions. An engineer who quoted poetry, a businessman who understood symbolism, he defended his creation with both technical specifications and aesthetic arguments. "The curves of the four pillars as produced by our calculations," he wrote, "give a great impression of strength and beauty." He was right. Mathematical necessity had created accidental art.

The tower's opening on March 31, 1889, drew crowds from every social class. Aristocrats paid premium prices to ascend in the elevators (when they worked—frequent breakdowns meant long climbs). Workers saved centimes to climb the stairs on Sundays. Sarah Bernhardt, ever theatrical, had herself carried up in a sedan chair. The anarchist Louise Michel climbed on foot, declaring that from such height, class distinctions disappeared—all humans looked equally small.

Not everyone was won over. Maupassant reportedly lunched daily at the tower's restaurant because it was the only place in Paris where he didn't have to see the structure. But resistance was futile. By exposition's end, two million people had ascended. The temporary tower had become permanent, its iron lattice capturing something essential about the age: industrial yet elegant, mathematical yet romantic, divisive yet unifying.