Eiffel Tower on fire

AP / WSTR Radio, Atlanta | 7.22.03

[mhking]

England hates France, right?

Well, at least this week they do...

[Lazamataz]

I got flamed for making a joke about a dead cat the other day.

HA HA very funny JJ. Making jokes at the expense of the French. They'll invade you guys, y'know.

[tracer]

More likely an electrical fire in the radio transmitter located thereupon. Suvine sairccut brehkehr.......

[Veggie Todd]

Could somebody please courriel me and let me know if this is series? LOL

[Constitution Day]

The Eiffel Tower, Paris, France

The Eiffel Tower is located in the St Germain district, Paris, France, on the bank of the River Seine.

Monsieur Eiffel, who was the main engineer of the design and building of the Tower, also helped design the framework for the Statue of Liberty and various other buildings. He became known as the 'Magician of Iron'.

The Eiffel Tower was built as the entrance arch to the Paris Exhibition in 1889, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. It was opened to the general public on the 15 March, 1889, before it was even finished. It was finished on the 5 of May, 1889. It was meant to be a temporary structure, to stand for only 20 years. However, it was never taken down, so it still stands today in all its majestic glory.

While it was being built, there were endless efforts by many different groups of people to get the whole project scrapped. One group of Parisian artists called it 'the shame of Paris', complaining about the aesthetics of the Tower, that it was the French equivalent of an eyesore. After it had been built, there were still demands that it be taken down.

The Eiffel Tower is a very large iron structure. There are about 2.5 million rivets in the whole thing and it weighs over 9000 tonnes. If you were to stand the Leaning Tower of Pisa on the Statue of Liberty, on the Great Pyramid of the Pharaoh Cheops, the Eiffel Tower would be taller. If you were to magnetise it, it would affect electronic circuits for miles around. Unfortunately for all budding trouble-makers, this has been made incredibly difficult with the application of very thick coats of paint. About 45 tonnes of mud-brown paint is applied every seven years, which has kept the structure from rusting.

The base of the Eiffel Tower is 100 metres square, and the tower stands 320 metres tall, owing to a Radio tower and antenna placed at the top in 1959. Before the radio tower and antenna, it was 300 metres tall; at one point it was the highest structure in the world. During a hot day the iron expands so much that the Tower can rise by up to 17 centimetres. Also, owing to its skeletal structure, it moves only as much as an estimated 22cm in hurricane-force winds. This is not much at all.

Because it is so high, it has been a very popular place to commit suicide; over 400 people have thrown themselves off it since it was built although wire mesh is now used to keep visitors from doing this. To get up to the height you want, there are lifts from the ground - one in each of the four 'legs' - to the first level, which is 57m above ground, and to the second level, which is 115m above ground. The second level is where all the legs are brought together. Then there is a lift to the third level which is 276m above ground. Ordinary visitors cannot go higher than this, but there is the observation deck, lamp and the radio tower and antenna. Although no one was killed during the construction of the Tower, after it opened one worker was killed while the lifts were being installed.

When the Germans took over Paris during World War Two, there was a mystery fault in the lifts, so when Hitler wanted to go up it, he had to climb the 1,792 steps to the top. When the Nazis left Paris in 1944, the lifts were fixed with the simple turn of a screw.

On the ground, many sales people wander with Eiffel Tower models of varying sizes and other miscellaneous objects, trying to persuade the many tourists to buy from them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A506369

[EggsAckley]

It's Bob Dole's Birthday too!

(have a good one!)

[jjbrouwer]

Traditionally, oui.

Mais, unfortunately a lot of Brits go to Paris on holiday. Don't know why - the French are so rude!

There's a webcam here.

[TheBigB]

priceless French landmark

There is one, and only one, priceless French landmark...

[cajungirl]

Re your query on 'how's Kobe",,I haven't laughed that hard in years.

[Lazamataz]

Don't know why - the French are so rude!

I know, and they could come here to Murrica for world-class rudeness!

[Alouette]

Alouette, gentille Alouette.
Did you see the towers on fire?
Yes I see the towers on fire.
ohhhhhhhh
Alouette.....

C'est rien, mon ami.

All the other pictures on the AP wire were old stock photos.

[jjbrouwer]

They'll be burning up about that one. Meanwhile, all those people with birthdays today should be extra vigilant with their birthday cakes - expecially the ones with a lot of candles!

[SGCOS]

..About 45 tonnes of mud-brown paint is applied every seven years

Sounds like my ex-wife.

[Akira]

People are openly rejoicing before knowing any facts on casualties or anything else. Some are equating the greatness of this (at the very least a monument being damaged, with perhaps innocent casualties) with the greatness of possibility killing Saddam's sons. That is sick, that's not what this country is about.

Tourists visit the Eiffel Tower, Parisians don't exactly make up the majority of the people at the top. For all we know Americans could be up there, but people were rejoicing before even knowing that.

Am I the only who saddened by the majority of this thread? I do not equate being a PATRIOT with wanting to see the civilians of countries who may have wronged us suffer.

[Constitution Day]

Laetitia Casta. Yummm.

[jjbrouwer]

D'accord.

I was half expecting someone to make a joke about French Fries. Apologies if they already have...

Thankfully, there apparently weren't any casualties and it was put out some time ago.

[EggsAckley]

You've been so busy chastising people on this thread that you must have missed the lastest reports: the tower has been evacuated, there are NO INJURIES.

[cajungirl]

noone wants innocent people dead for crying out loud. But alot of us think Iraq was worse than it needed to be because of the cowardly french. If they and the germans had come on board the Iraqis would have been better off and we might not have militant hold outs encouraged to kill our boys. I think I blame the french for our boys getting killed over there. And that makes me rejoice when their monuments have small fires. These people are the most cowardly ingrates, the scheming criminals make money off saddam and his killings, they hate us, we bail them out and they hate us even more. They are the dregs of the world if you ask me. And spare me any supercilious lectures about my barbarity,,,they earned it, in spades for as long as I live.

[Mr. Silverback]

Happy Birthday!

[nutmeg]

Fox News just said smoke is billowing out of the top floor. Cause unknown.

If I remember correctly, there is a restaurant up in that part of the Eiffel Tower... fire in the kitchen, perhaps? Or maybe an electrical fire with all the radio and TV antennaes.