2023, Centenary of the death of Gustave Eiffel

Gustave Eiffel, iron, business and flair

06:49

Gustave Eiffel in 1900. © Atelier Nadar / Gallica - BnF

Text by: Patrice Martin |

Florian Riva

2 mins

The brilliant builder of the Eiffel Tower, died 100 years ago, at the age, very rare at the time, of 91, at the end of a dazzling career as an engineer, entrepreneur and pioneer and patron of science.

But do we know that his prestigious name is associated with more than 500 works in around thirty countries?

The centenary of his death in 2023 is an opportunity for RFI, and its writings in foreign languages, to survey the heritage of this universal Frenchman, master of iron.

On this occasion, we offer you a video interview with Bertrand Lemoine, engineer, architect, historian and specialist of Gustave Eiffel 

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Just as in the 20th century the invention of the Internet gave rise to and prospered computer giants, in the 19th century the development of roads and railways across Europe and the world made industrial companies prosper, having to build bridges, from the smallest to the largest, and paved the way for the industrial paroxysm of European civilization.

Works of art therefore emerged almost everywhere, mobilizing treasures of creativity and sometimes considerable financial masses, throughout the second half of the nineteenth century.

A young graduate of the École centrale will gradually carve out the lion's share of the world market, and his talent for mastering iron, at the same time as his business acumen, will give him, and until today, a reputation, not only in France, but worldwide.

The traces of Gustave Eiffel can be found everywhere, or almost: from the Maria Pia viaduct over the Douro in Portugal to the Statue of Liberty, whose interior structure he built, from the Garabit viaduct in France to the station of Budapest in Hungary, from the Arica Cathedral in Chile to the Ungheni Bridge in Romania, from the locks of the Panama Canal, to the Trang Tien Bridge which spans the River of Flowers in Hue in Vietnam, and from the he Observatory of Nice, revolutionary in its time, up to the many replicas of its “300 meter tower”, including the original Santos Dumont in Brazil or the massive Tianducheng in China.

A series of reports from RFI's foreign language editorial staff throughout 2023

RFI has chosen to return, thanks to its foreign language editorial staff, to the very places of all these technical and architectural exploits, with a series of reports which will mark, throughout the year 2023, the centenary of Gustave Eiffel.

It will also be an opportunity to recall one of the scandals of the century, the bankruptcy of the construction of the Panama Canal, of which Eiffel was wrongly accused.

Justice finally gave him notice in 1893. But the case would mark the end of the Eiffel brand.

Morally bruised but still passionate about science and innovative despite his great age, Eiffel will devote the last years of his life - and this is also unknown to the general public - to use his tower as a laboratory, to save it from destruction.

He thus singularly advanced the technology of wireless telegraphy, radio, meteorology, aerology, and finally, aeronautics.

To understand the importance of the life and work of Gustave Eiffel, and to discuss the reports of the foreign language editorial staff of RFI, we met, on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower, one of the experts and connoisseurs of this period, Bertrand Lemoine, an engineer himself but also an architect and historian.

The Association of the descendants of Gustave Eiffel, of which Bertrand Lemoine is one of the scientific advisers, will be one of the masterminds of many events marking the centenary of Eiffel's death in 2023. With in particular an exhibition sponsored by Unesco which will begin in Paris and will tour in several countries.

Sources and Bibliographic Elements:

Gustave Eiffel,

by Bertrand Lemoine, Hazan, 1984.

Eiffel the genius of iron,

by Philippe Ménager, Bonneton, 2020.

The real life of Gustave Eiffel, by Christine Kerdellant, 

Robert Laffont, 2021.

Gustave Eiffel the master of iron, by 

Michel Carmona

Pluriel, 2022.

“Structurae” site, database of works of art and civil engineering.

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