When the Eiffel Tower was completed in 1889, it was supposed to remain in Paris for 20 years before being dismantled. However, 133 years later, the tower is still standing – but according to experts, it is not in very good condition. The keeper.
According to confidential reports published by the French magazine Marianne, the monument is completely covered in rust. So the tower is in need of a major overhaul, but instead is just getting a facelift for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
“If Gustave Eiffel had visited this place, he would have had a heart attack,” an anonymous source close to the tower told the magazine.
Eiffel, the civil engineer whose company designed and built the monument, said identifying and stopping the spread of rust was the biggest problem for the building’s longevity, and suggested it would need to be repainted every seven years.
“Painting is an important component in the protection of a metal structure, and the care with which it is carried out is the only guarantee of its durability,” he wrote at the time.
The tower is currently being painted for the twentieth time with a €60 million intervention in preparation for the 2024 Olympics, but not completely, which is why some believe the intervention is worth little.
On the tower’s official website, Bertrand Lemoine, an architect, engineer and historian, is more optimistic about the condition of the monument. It is true that the enemy of iron is corrosion caused by the oxidation of iron in air and water, but if it is repainted, the Eiffel Tower can stand forever.
