![]() While each year 7 million people pay the entrance fee to climb or ride to its higher platforms, other touristic sites claim to attract more visitors. The Eiffel Tower is not France’s most visited attraction. (For more about precision bombing, see my review of Malcom Gladwell’s The Bomber Mafia.) Last and Arguably Least Luckily, such strikes were far from precise and by October 6, Hitler decided to concentrate all bombing efforts on London. One hundred and twenty airplanes dropped hundreds of bombs on Paris during the night of August 26, 1944. Hitler also ordered Germany’s airforce, the Luftwaffe, to bombard the capital. ![]() In reality, the strikes were impossible to execute. Nazi General Hans Speidel claimed that he failed to carry out the order because he found the idea of destroying Paris to be absurd. In the end, he accepted the ceasefire presented to him by Swedish diplomat Raoul Nordling to save his own skin, not the city.ĭespite the ceasefire agreement, Hitler was not about to give up and so ordered missile strikes, hoping to turn Paris to powder. If von Choliz failed to destroy Paris, it was because he was running out of time and troops to carry out his orders. The explosives were later dismantled by French police. Before surrendering, he ordered the mining of several of the city’s monuments and bridges. The documentary provides ample evidence that von Choltiz was a disciplined officer who hated the French. After conducting his own investigation, he released Détruire Paris, les plans secrets d’Hitler in 2019, transforming von Choltitz’s testimony into myth. But documentary filmmaker, Françoise Cros de Fabrique, was skeptical of the story. This version of history is bolstered by the 2014 French film Diplomatie, starring Niels Arestrup. In his memoir, published in 1950, Von Choltitz claimed that he saved the French capital by refusing to obey Hitler’s demand. Hitler’s telegraphed order was categorical, « Paris ne peut tomber entre les mains de l’ennemi ou seulement comme un champ de ruines ».Īccounts of what happened next vary widely. Von Choltitz was serving as the military governor of Paris. Gustave Eiffel’s Laboratory The Tower Narrowly Escaped DestructionĪt the end of World War II, as Allied forces were nearing Paris, Adolph Hitler ordered General Dietrich von Choltiz to destroy the city. The initial negative reaction of many Parisians-that it was a monumental eyesore that clashed with the surrounding architecture-had long since dissipated. By that time, the Eiffel Tower had become a world-renowned landmark. ![]() There, scientists conducted a wide variety of experiments and recorded myriad meteorological and astronomical observations.īy creating a lab that boasted equipment and conditions unavailable anywhere else in the world, Eiffel managed to save his tower which remained the tallest structure in the world until the Chrysler Building opened in New York in 1930. Not wanting to see his monumental beauty destroyed, Eiffel funded the installation of a meteorology laboratory on the third and highest stage of the tower. The city of Paris planned to dismantle La dame de fer after 20 years-the point at which Gustave Eiffel’s permit to use the property expired. The Eiffel Tower was built as one of the main attractions at the 1889 World’s Fair. Fortunately, such variations have zero impact on the stability of the structure and are imperceptible to observers. The highest deviation of this nature took place in 1976 when the top of the tower inclined 18 cm. This phenomenon, however, also provokes a slight inclination away from the side of the tower that faces the sun. The difference in height between these two seasons ranges between 6 to 7 inches. ![]() In the winter, freezing temperatures cause the tower to contract and summer heat causes it to grow. Given that the Eiffel Tower is constructed out of wrought iron beams, it may not come as a surprise to learn that it shrinks and expands with the changing seasons. ![]()
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