In May 1889, when the International Exposition opened, the Eiffel Tower became the most attractive place. Eiffel personally raised a French flag into the sky. Eiffel ensured the construction of the Tower with his excellent design and skills. His courage without regrets enabled the successful completion of the Tower, making Parisians proud of the Tower. In order to commemorate this heroic engineer, people named the tower after him and built a bronze bust of Eiffel under the tower.
After the Eiffel Tower was completed, Eiffel invited the famous musician Gounod, who had opposed the construction of the tower, to sit in the salon on the top of the tower and enjoy the wonders of the sky. Seeing the beautiful scenery, Gounod became very happy. He abandoned his prejudices in the face of reality and improvised the "Concerto in the Clouds" based on a poem by Musset. Despite this, there was an opposition movement after the tower was completed. France's well-educated literati hated this trendy and avant-garde building. Many writers signed a petition to jointly oppose this "improvement". They denounced it as "a vulgar, hateful shadow, a mess", believing that it had a bad impact on the appearance of Paris and was an insult to the great buildings of Paris. The writer Maupassant often visited a restaurant on the terrace simply because it was the only place in Paris where the Eiffel Tower could not be seen. When the poet Paul Verena saw it for the first time, he ordered the coachman to turn around immediately so as not to take another look at the "ugly and disgusting thing" and affect his good mood and inspiration for poetry creation.
When the Tower was first built, people’s surprise, suspicion and even anger towards the Tower could be based on cultural consciousness. People don't want to see changes happen, especially things that change their usual psychological balance and bring impact. The solemnity, splendor, solemnity, and grandeur of the inscriptions and carvings of traditional style monuments have been condensed into subconscious standards. This is the so-called traditional posture, and sometimes it is very irrational. This mentality almost brought doom to the Eiffel Tower. The First World War began, and although social calls for demolishing the tower subsided slightly, the matter was not completely over. In the 1920s, the French government was still considering knocking down the tower and preparing to use its 10,000 tons Iron built factories in areas devastated by the war, but fortunately the move was abandoned due to the tense battlefield situation. Because according to the original construction contract, the Eiffel Tower was to be demolished 20 years after it was built. After World War II, a real anecdote happened around the Tower. A non-staple food supplier actually sold 7,000 tons of iron in the tower to a scrap collector and received an advance payment of 500,000 francs. The occurrence of this absurd incident shows from one aspect that the Iron Tower did not hold much weight in the hearts of the people at that time.
The Clouds See the Sun
As time goes by, people's prejudices begin to disappear, and the fate of the "Cloud Shepherdess" also changes. In 1964, the Tower was finally protected by law and was listed as a historical monument that must not be demolished. The monument was finally recognized as a symbol of Paris. In the 1980s, in order to enhance the sturdiness of the tower, people began to repair the tower. The tower was temporarily closed and underwent the largest renovation since its inception. During the reconstruction project, the concrete platform on the second floor of the tower was first replaced with steel plates, thus reducing the total weight of the tower by 1,000 tons. Then the luxury hotel on the second floor was moved to the third floor and rebuilt in its place. A public tavern was opened. In addition, in order to protect the tower, it must be repainted every few years, and each painting requires 52 tons of paint.
On the occasion of celebrating the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution and the 100th anniversary of the tower's construction, people have made adjustments to the tower's use, lighting, tour guides, etc., and added service facilities. A photo of the Eiffel statue was placed on the second On the second floor platform, leaning on a steel beam, an Eiffel reception hall was built, where academic meetings, lectures and receptions can be organized. In the new audio-visual museum, people can enjoy videos and TV programs about the history of the Tower and its architectural features. What is different from the past is that if people want to go to the third floor to view the city view, they no longer need to take elevators in different layers. Four elevators that automatically go up and down at the same time can take tourists directly to the top of the tower. Since the 1950s, the Eiffel Tower has been the center of French radio and television and is now one of the tallest antenna towers in the world. Moreover, the Eiffel Tower Radio Station was also established after the reconstruction. The current Eiffel Tower welcomes about 3 million tourists every year. It not only serves as a monument that attracts people to visit, but also is a symbol of Paris and a symbol of France.