The world’s most famous landmark, the Eiffel Tower, will have a new profile to mark the 120th anniversary of its opening next year. The size of the viewing platform on the third level will be doubled by bolting an extra structure to the top of the tower.

The structure is supposed to be temporary but then so was the tower itself, although this was not a view shared by its leading engineer, Gustave Eiffel. Until he grew tired of answering the rather repetitive questions asked by visitors, as well as the time it took to get up and down, Eiffel actually lived in the tower in his own private apartment. Among those he invited for dinner in the months following the official opening in June 1889 were the President of France, the Shah of Persia, the Prince of Wales, the King of Siam, the inventor of the light bulb Thomas Edison, and Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley, while on their European Wild West show tour.

After Eiffel departed, his apartment remained inaccessible for decades until part of the tower wall was cut away so that anyone visiting the tower could see inside through a huge window. His apartment is furnished in late 19th century style and has several lifelike waxwork figures.  

When the extension is complete, visitors will be able to enter the apartment itself and spend much longer on the summit. As the tower in its existing form decreases sharply in size level by level, at present it can take hours to reach the top at peak times and there are frequent problems of crowd control.

The new structure, made of high performance carbon, can be comfortably accommodated because Eiffel designed the tower to take much greater load factors than the prevailing technology permitted. During the First World War a larger vertical extension was added to the tower so that the French government could broadcast to the general population and transmit military signals. 

From our April 2008 e-newsletter