Pont de garabit gustave eiffel biography

Was the civil engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel who built the Eiffel Tower, a symbol of France around the world ? Discover the history of Gustave Eiffel and the famous Iron Lady.

Gustave Eiffel : the man who built the Eiffel Tower

It was during the 1870s and 80s that the Eiffel Company reached its pinnacle and was solicited around the world. Eiffel’s works became increasingly complex and were achieved with brio; for example, New York’s Statue of Liberty for which Eiffel designed the entire steel framework to support the weight of Bartholdi’s sculpture.

The Statue of Liberty

Also associated with Eiffel is of course his most famous work : the Eiffel Tower. The construction began on January, 28th 1887 and it was completed on March, 15th 1889. Know as the Iron Lady, it is now a worldwide symbol of France. Despite virulent critiques and the planned destruction of the tower twenty years after its construction, the success was immediate. It is the most visited and loved landmark in Paris.

The Eiffel Tower : nice, isn't it ?

If you are looking forward to visiting the Eiffel Tower, we suggest you to read our article to know more about the history of the Eiffel Tower and book your tour online with PARISCityVISION.

Gustave Eiffel's beginnings and education

Gustave Eiffel was born in Dijon on December, 15th 1832 and attended the Central Paris School of Arts and Manufacturing to study chemistry. Diploma in hand, he got into metallurgy and thanks to his mother’s circle of frien

French civil engineer (1832–1923)

For other uses, see Gustave Eiffel (disambiguation).

Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (EYE-fəl, French:[alɛksɑ̃dʁɡystavɛfɛl]; néBonickhausen dit Eiffel; 15 December 1832 – 27 December 1923) was a French civil engineer. A graduate of École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, he made his name with various bridges for the French railway network, most famously the Garabit Viaduct. He is best known for the world-famous Eiffel Tower, designed by his company and built for the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris, and his contribution to building the Statue of Liberty in New York. After his retirement from engineering, Eiffel focused on research into meteorology and aerodynamics, making significant contributions in both fields.

Early life

Alexandre Gustave Eiffel was born in France, in the Côte-d'Or, the first child of Catherine-Mélanie (née Moneuse) and Alexandre Bonickhausen dit Eiffel. He was a descendant of Marguerite Frédérique (née Lideriz) and Jean-René Bönickhausen, who had emigrated from the German town of Marmagen and settled in Paris at the beginning of the 19th century. The family adopted the name Eiffel as a reference to the Eifel mountains in the region from which they had come. Although the family always used the name Eiffel, Gustave's name was registered at birth as Bonickhausen dit Eiffel, and was not formally changed to Eiffel until 1880.

At the time of Gustave's birth, his father, an ex-soldier, was working as an administrator for the French Army; but shortly after his birth his mother expanded a charcoal business she had inherited from her parents to include a coal-distribution business, and soon afterwards his father gave up his job to assist her. Due to his mother's business commitments, Gustave spent his childhood living with his grandmother, but nevertheless remained close to his mother, who was to remain an

Gustave Eiffel was born in Dijon in 1832 and died in 1923.

From an early age Gustave Eiffel showed a high interest in science and mechanics. He moved to Paris in 1850 for his studies, to prepare for his entrance into the polytechnic school. He was accepted to study at the central school of arts and manufactures, where he soon specialised in metallurgy, chemistry and civil construction. From then on he started his work in the metallurgy field.
Gustave Eiffel is an exceptional engineer who started his promising career constructing the national railways. Thus, between 1858 and 1860, at the age of 26, he directed the construction of the Passerelle Eiffel, a 500 meter long metal railway bridge crossing the Garonne River in Bordeaux. This first great achievement, a real technical feat, earned him the recognition of his contemporaries and the press.
With his first experiences, Gustave Eiffel founded his own company in Levallois-Perret in 1866: "G. Eiffel and Co." was born.
Eiffel will then focus on the construction of viaducts, railways or road bridges and large buildings with a metal frame.
The Eiffel workshops will thus build the Great Machine Gallery of the Paris World’s Fair of 1867 .
In 1875, he built the big train station Budapest-Nyugati (so-called "West Station") in Hungary.
Gustave Eiffell also built pavilions for the World's Fair of 1878 , held in Paris.
In 1884, he completed the construction of the Garabit Viaduct in Cantal region, which gave him a fabulous fame because of the gigantic 160 meter arch, which was a world record. In addition, the viaduct is located at 122 meters in height, so the realization is a real feat.
Then, he worked with Bartholdi in drawing up the plans for the Statue of Liberty that France offered to the United states in 1886 and realized the internal structure..

From 1886, Gustave Eiffel proposed a tower project for the future Universal Exhibition of 1889, which was meant to celebrate the Centenary of th

Bridge in Ruynes-en-Margeride, Cantal, France

The Garabit viaduct (French: viaduc de Garabit) is a railwayarch bridge spanning the Truyère, near Ruynes-en-Margeride, Cantal, France, in the mountainous Massif Central region.

The bridge was constructed between 1882 and 1884 by Gustave Eiffel, with structural engineering by Maurice Koechlin, and was opened in 1885. It is 565 m (1,854 ft) in length and has a principal arch of 165 m (541 ft) span.

Background

By the late 1870s, Eiffel & Cie, the company founded by Eiffel in partnership with Théophile Seyrig, had established a place among the leading French engineering companies. Between 1875 and 1877, the company had built the Maria Pia Bridge over the Douro at Porto, and when the construction of a railway between Marvejols and Neussargues, both in Cantal, was proposed, the work of constructing a viaduct to cross the Truyère was given to Eiffel without the usual process of competitive tendering. That was at the recommendation of the state engineers since the technical problems involved were similar to those of the Maria Pia Bridge. Indeed, it was Eiffel & Cie's success with that project that had led to the proposal for a viaduct at Garabit.

Design and construction

The Garabit viaduct, which uses a parabolic arch to support a single rail line across the gorge, opened in November 1885. The crossing is 565 m (1,854 ft) long and weighs (metric) 3,587 tonnes (3,530 long tons; 3,954 short tons). It cost 3,100,000 francs to complete (roughly €80 million in 2023).

Rail traffic using the bridge causes a deflection (load displacement) of about 8 millimetres (0.315 in), which was the same value as the one calculated by Eiffel. The bridge, which is 124 m (407 ft) above the river, had the world's longest arch when it was completed in 1884. This was surpassed two years later with the opening of the Dom Luí