Viewed from a distance, one is struck by the graceful shape of the Eiffel Tower.
Moving closer, you begin to resolve the detailed structure, the massive base and the countless rivets that hold the whole thing together.
Eiffel produced more than 14,000 square feet of drawings, detailing the 15,000 structural parts and the 2.5 million rivet holes.
The erection of this 8,000-tonne jigsaw-puzzle by only 250 workers was a feat of genius in itself. The tower was finished in two years, two months and five days, without a single worker being involved in an accident.
Eiffel originally estimated the cost at $ 1.5 million but built it for 5 per cent less.
The structure of the Eiffel tower is simple. It sits on four massive buttresses each inclined inwards at an angle of 44 degrees and tied together and prevented from falling by the first horizontal platform at 180 feet above ground.