Today, the Eiffel Tower is a global icon synonymous with Paris and its allure. But it wasn't always that way. During the tower's construction, many Parisians were vehemently opposed to it, fearing it would ruin the city’s aesthetic.
Here are some of the sickest burns levied at the Eiffel Tower from artists and writers of the day:
“belfry skeleton” (Paul Verlaine)
“truly tragic street-lamp” (Léon Bloy)
“mast of iron gymnasium apparatus, incomplete, confused and deformed” (Francois Coppée)
“carcass waiting to be fleshed out with freestone or brick, a funnel-shaped grill, a hole-riddled suppository” (Joris-Karl Huysmans)
“This high and skinny pyramid of iron ladders, this giant ungainly skeleton, upon a base that looks built to carry a colossal monument of Cyclops, but which just peters out into a ridiculous thin shape like a factory chimney” (Guy de Maupassant).
“We have come, writers, painters, sculptors, architects, passionate enthusiasts of the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, to protest with all our strength, all our indignation, in the name of the unknown French taste, in the name of art and of French history threatened, against the erection, in the heart of our capital, of the useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower…”
- Protest Against the Tower of Monsieur Eiffel’
February 14, 1878
Thankfully, the City of Paris saw beyond the criticism (and a brief lawsuit). They envisioned a monument celebrating technological advancement and placing Paris on the world stage - and they were right. They got it.
Shortly after the Eiffel Tower was completed, Parisians had a change of mind* and people flocked to see it from across the world - and still do, with over seven million people visiting the tower each year. In 2012, the Eiffel Tower was named the world's most valuable monument at $435 Billion (six times the value of the runner-up, Rome's Colosseum.)
The decision to build the Eiffel Tower has panned out well, but the Council could easily have got the wobbles and quit, given the amount of public pushback, the cost, and the political risk. Instead, a few visionaries were willing to withstand short-term opposition for long-term impact. Nicely done.
For more on this story, and what it means for leadership, pick up your copy of Local Legends, out now.
- AM
*except for Guy de Maupassant. He still hated it and was said to eat lunch on the first floor, because it was the only place in Paris he couldn't see it. Ha!