Gustave Eiffel

Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (December 15, 1832 – December 27, 1923; French pronunciation in IPA, in English usually pronounced in the German manner ) was a French engineer and architect, specialist of metallic structures. The name of Eiffel was adopted by one of his German ancestors in the early 18th century, taken from his birthplace Marmagen located in the Eifel, as the French could not pronounce his actual name of B?nickhausen.

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Born in Dijon, C?te-d'Or, France, he is most famous for building the Eiffel Tower, built from 1887-1889 for the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris, France. It is less well known that he designed the armature for the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, USA. He gained his expertise in construction by designing ironwork for bridges such as the Garabit Viaduct.

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Eiffel et Cie., Eiffel's consulting and construction firm with the support of Belguian engineer T?ophile Seyrig, participated in an international bid to design and build a 160 m long railway bridge over the Douro river, between Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal. His proposal was winner because it was a beautiful, transparent, structure, it was the least expensive and incorporated the use of the method of forces, a then novel technique in structure design developed by Maxwell in 1864. The Ponte Maria Pia is conformed by a double hinged arch that supports a single lane railway plate through pillars that reinforced the whole of the bridge. The construction proceeded rather rapidly and the bridge was constructed in less than two years (5 January, 1876 to 4 November, 1877 ), it was inagurated by the by the king D. Lu?s and the queen D. Maria Pia, after whom it was named. The bridge was utilised until 1991 (114 years) and was replaced by the newer S. John Bridge, a design of engineer Edgar Cardoso. ,

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Gustave Eiffel also designed La Ruche in Paris, that would, like the Eiffel Tower, become a city landmark. A three-storey circular structure that looked more like a large beehive, it was created as a temporary structure for use as a wine rotunda at the Great Exposition of 1900. He constructed the Garabit viaduct, a railroad bridge near Ruynes en Margeride in the Cantal d?partement.

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Eiffel's reputation suffered a severe setback when he was implicated in financial scandals round Ferdinand de Lesseps and the entrepreneurs backing the failed French Panama Canal project. Eiffel himself had no connection with the finances, and his guilty judgment was later reversed.

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In his later years Eiffel began to study aerodynamics.

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Eiffel died on December 27, 1923 in his mansion on Rue Rabelais in Paris and was interred in the Cimeti?re de Levallois-Perret, also in Paris.

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December 15: December 15 is the 349th day of the year (350th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 16 days remaining....

1832: 1832 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar)....

December 27: December 27 is the 361st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. (362nd in a leap year). There are 4 days remaining....

Gustave Eiffel related Images and Photos (experimental)

Gustave Eiffel Chest Right Arm Folded across Chest	Mr. and Mrs. Gustave Eiffel and their Five Children in their Garden Levallois	Eiffel Tower	Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower	Eiffel Tower	Eiffel Tower I	Eiffel Tower I
Eiffel Tower c.1966	Tour Eiffel	Tour Eiffel	Tour Eiffel