The Art Nouveau Connection

While the tower predates the Art Nouveau movement's peak, it embodies many principles that would define the style. The decorative arches between the legs, added by architect Stephen Sauvestre, preview Art Nouveau's marriage of structure and ornament.

These arches serve no structural purpose—Koechlin's design didn't require them. Yet they transform the tower from pure engineering to architecture. They create a visual base that grounds the structure, provide human scale at entry level, and echo the grand arches of Paris's historic bridges and monuments.

The ornamental details throughout—the names of scientists engraved on the first level, the delicate ironwork of the original spiral staircases, the filigree of the observation platforms—demonstrate that industrial materials could achieve the decorative richness previously reserved for stone and wood.

Art historian Dr. Françoise Cachin notes: "The tower proved that the machine age could produce beauty. Its influence on Art Nouveau was profound—Hector Guimard's Metro entrances, Victor Horta's iron staircases, all flow from Eiffel's demonstration that iron could dance."