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asonry piers on the river bed these were constructed with the aid of compressed air caissons and hydraulic rams both innovative techniques at the time eiffel was initially given the responsibility of assembling the metalwork and eventually took over the management of the entire project from nepveu who resigned in march 1860 13 following the completion of the project on schedule eiffel was appointed as the principal engineer of the compagnie belge his work had also gained the attention of several people who were later to give him work including stanislas de la roche toulay who had prepared the design for the metalwork of the bordeaux bridge jean baptiste krantz and wilhelm nordling further promotion within the company followed but the business began to decline and in 1865 eiffel seeing no future there resigned and set up as an independent consulting engineer he was already working independently on the construction of two railway stations at toulouse and agen and in 1866 he was given a contract to oversee the construction of 33 locomotives for the egyptian government a profitable but undemanding job in the course of which he visited egypt where he visited the suez canal which was being constructed by ferdinand de lesseps at the same time he was employed by jean baptiste kranz to assist him in the design of the exhibition hall for the exposition universelle which was to be held in 1867 eiffel s principal job was to draw up the arch girders of the galerie des machines in order to carry out this work eiffel and henri treca the director of the conservatoire des arts et metiers 14 conducted valuable research on the structural properties of cast iron definitively establishing the modulus of elasticity applicable to compound castings eiffel et cie edit the budapest nyugati railway station at the end of 1866 eiffel managed to borrow enough cash to set up his own workshops at 48 rue fouquet in levallois perret 15 his first important commission was for two viaducts for the railway line between lyon and bordeaux and the company also began to undertake work in other countries including st mark s cathedral in arica chile which was an all metal prefabricated building manufactured in france and shipped to south america in pieces to be assembled on site first it was intended for the city of ancón a beach near lima but the peruvian government of president josé balta changed the final destination to arica because the old church was destroyed by an earthquake on 13 august 1868 because of this a committee of ladies of arica asked balta to relocate eiffel s structure to arica on 6 october 1868 he entered into partnership with théophile seyrig a fellow graduate of the école centrale forming the company eiffel et cie in 1875 eiffel et cie were given two important contracts one for the budapest nyugati railway station for the vienna to budapest railway and the other for a bridge over the river douro in portugal 16 the station in budapest was an innovative design the usual pattern for building a railway terminus was to conceal the metal structure behind an elaborate facade eiffel s design for budapest used the metal structure as the centerpiece of the building flanked on either side by conventional stone and brick clad structures housing administrative offices the maria pia bridge the bridge over the douro came about as the result of a competition held by the royal portuguese railroad company the task was a demanding one the river was quick flowing up to 20 metres 66 ft deep and had a bed formed of a deep layer of gravel which made the construction of piers on the river bed impossible and so the bridge had to have a central span of 160 m 520 ft this was greater than the longest arch span which had been built at the time 17 eiffel s proposal was for a bridge whose deck was supported by five iron piers with the abutments of the pair on the river bank also bearing a central supporting arch the price quoted by eiffel was ff 965 000 far below the nearest competitor and so he was given the job although since his company was less experienced than his rivals the portuguese authorities appointed a committee to report on eiffel et cie s suitability the members included jean baptiste krantz henri dion and léon molinos both of whom had known eiffel for a long time their report was favorable and eiffel got the job on site work began in january 1876 and was complete by the end of october 1877 the bridge was ceremonially opened by king luís i and queen maria pia after whom the bridge was named on 4 november the exposition universelle in 1878 firmly established his reputation as one of the leading engineers of the time as well as exhibiting models and drawings of work undertaken by the company eiffel was also responsible for the construction of several of the exhibition buildings 18 one of these a pavilion for the paris gas company was eiffel s first collaboration with stephen sauvestre who was later to become the head of the company s architectural office in 1879 the partnership with seyrig was dissolved and the company was renamed the compagnie des établissements eiffel 19 the same year the company was given the contract for the garabit viaduct a railway bridge near ruynes en margeride in the cantal département like the douro bridge the project involved a lengthy viaduct crossing the river valley as well as the river itself and eiffel was given the job without any process of competitive tendering due to his success with the bridge over the douro 20 to assist him in the work he took on several people who were to play important roles in the design and construction of the eiffel tower including maurice koechlin a young graduate of the zurich polytechnikum who was engaged to undertake calculations and make drawings and émile nouguier who had previously worked for eiffel on the construction of the douro bridge interior structural elements of the statue of liberty designed by gustave eiffel the same year eiffel started work on a system of standardised prefabricated bridges an idea that was the result of a conversation with the governor of cochin china these used a small number of standard components all small enough to be readily transportable in areas with poor or non existent roads and were joined using bolts rather than rivets reducing the need for skilled labour on site a number of different types were produced ranging from footbridges to standard gauge railway bridges 21 in 1881 eiffel was contacted by auguste bartholdi who was in need of an engineer to help him to realise the statue of liberty some work had already been carried out by eugène viollet le duc but he had died in 1879 eiffel was selected because of his experience with wind stresses eiffel devised a structure consisting of a four legged pylon to support the copper sheeting which made up the body of the statue the entire statue was erected at the eiffel works in paris before being dismantled and shipped to the united states 22 in 1886 eiffel also designed the dome for the astronomical observatory in nice this was the most important building in a complex designed by charles garnier later among the most prominent critics of the tower the dome with a diameter of 22 4 m 73 ft was the largest in the world when built and used an ingenious bearing device rather than running on wheels or rollers it was supported by a ring shaped hollow girder floating in a circular trough containing a solution of magnesium chloride in water this had been patented by eiffel in 1881 the eiffel tower edit main article eiffel tower koechlin s first drawing for the eiffel tower note the sketched stack of buildings with notre dame at the bottom indicating the scale of the proposed tower the design of the eiffel tower was originated by maurice koechlin and emile nouguier who had discussed ideas for a centrepiece for the 1889 exposition universelle in may 1884 koechlin working at his home made an outline drawing of their scheme described by him as a great pylon consisting of four lattice girders standing apart at the base and coming together at the top joined together by metal trusses at regular intervals 23 initially eiffel showed little enthusiasm although he did sanction further study of the project and the two engineers then asked stephen sauvestre to add architectural embellishments sauvestre added the decorative arches to the base a glass pavilion to the first level and the cupola at the top the enhanced idea gained eiffel s support for the project and he bought the rights to the patent on the design which koechlin nougier and sauvestre had taken out the design was exhibited at the exhibition of decorative arts in the autumn of 1884 and on 30 march 1885 eiffel read a paper on the project to the société des ingénieurs civils after discussing the technical problems and emphasising the practical uses of the tower he finished his talk by saying that the tower would symbolise 24 not only the art of the modern engineer but also the century of industry and science in which we are living and for which the way was prepared by the great scientific movement of the eighteenth century and by the revolution of 1789 to which this monument will be built as an expression of france s gratitude little happened until early 1886 but with the re election of jules grévy as president and his appointment of edouard lockroy as minister for trade decisions began to be made a budget for the exposition was passed and on 1 may lockroy announced an alteration to the terms of the open competition which was being held for a centerpiece for the exposition which effectively made the choice of eiffel s design a foregone conclusion all entries had to include a study for a 300 metre 980 ft four sided metal tower on the champ de mars on 12 may a commission was set up to examine eiffel s scheme and its rivals and on 12 june it presented its decision which was that only eiffel s proposal met their requirements after some debate about the exact site for the tower a contract was signed on 8 january 1887 this was signed by eiffel acting in his own capacity rather than as the representative of his company and granted him one and a half million francs toward the construction costs this was less than a quarter of the estimated cost of six and a half million francs eiffel was to receive all income from the commercial exploitation during the exhibition and for the following twenty years 25 eiffel later established a separate company to manage the tower the tower had been a subject of some controversy attracting criticism both from those who did not believe it feasible and from those who objected on artistic grounds just as work began at the champ de mars the committee of three hundred one member for each metre of the tower s height was formed led by charles garnier and including some of the most important figures of the french arts establishment including adolphe bouguereau guy de maupassant charles gounod and jules massenet a petition was sent to jean charles adolphe alphand the minister of works and was published by le temps 26 to bring our arguments home imagine for a moment a giddy ridiculous tower dominating paris like a gigantic black smokestack crushing under its barbaric bulk notre dame the tour saint jacques the louvre the dome of les invalides the arc de triomphe all of our humiliated monuments will disappear in this ghastly dream and for twenty years we shall see stretching like a blot of ink the hateful shadow of the hateful column of bolted sheet metal 18 july 1887 7 december 1887 20 march 1888 15 may 1888 21 august 1888 26 december 1888 march 1889 caricature of eiffel published 1887 in le temps at the time of the artist s protest work on the foundations started on 28 january 1887 those for the east and south legs were straightforward each leg resting on four 2 metre 6 6 ft concrete slabs one for each of the principal girders of each leg but the other two being closer to the river seine were more complicated each slab needed two piles installed by using compressed air caissons 15 m 49 ft long and 6 m 20 ft in diameter driven to a depth of 22 m 72 ft 27 to support the concrete slabs which were 6 m 20 ft thick each of these slabs supported a limestone block each with an inclined top to bear the supporting shoe for the ironwork these shoes were anchored by bolts 10 cm 4 in in diameter and 7 5 m 25 ft long work on the foundations was complete by 30 june and the erection of the iron work was started although no more than 250 men were employed on the site a prodigious amount of exacting preparatory work was entailed the drawing office produced 1 700 general drawings and 3 629 detail drawings of the 18 038 different parts needed 28 the task of drawing the components was complicated by the complex angles involved in the design and the degree of precision required the positions of rivet holes were specified to within 0 1 mm 0 004 in and angles worked out to one second of arc the components some already riveted together into sub assemblies were first bolted together the bolts being replaced by rivets as construction progressed no drilling or shaping was done on site if any part did not fit it was sent back to the factory for alteration the four legs each at an angle of 54 to the ground were initially constructed as cantilevers relying on the anchoring bolts in the masonry foundation blocks eiffel had calculated that this would be satisfactory until they approached halfway to the first level accordingly work was stopped for the purpose of erecting a wooden supporting scaffold this gave ammunition to his critics and lurid headlines including eiffel suicide and gustave eiffel has gone mad he has been confined in an asylum appeared in the popular press 29 at this stage a small creeper crane was installed in each leg designed to move up the tower as construction progressed and making use of the guides for the elevators which were to be fitted in each leg after this brief pause erection of the metalwork continued and the critical operation of linking the four legs was successfully completed by march 1888 in order to precisely align the legs so that the connecting girders could be put into place a provision had been made to enable precise adjustments by placing hydraulic jacks in the footings for each of the girders making up the legs the main structural work was completed at the end of march 1889 and on 31 march eiffel celebrated by leading a group of government officials accompanied by representatives of the press to the top of the tower since the lifts were not yet in operation the ascent was made by foot and took over an hour eiffel frequently stopping to make explanations of various features most of the party chose to stop at the lower levels but a few including nouguier compagnon the president of the city council and reporters from le figaro and le monde illustré completed the climb at 2 35 eiffel hoisted a large tricolour to the accompaniment of a 25 gun salute f...
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