Eiffel Tower: All the nuts and bolts on the "Iron Lady"

Want to know more about the Eiffel Tower? Check out these fun facts and Web sites that Sun reporter Darin Fenger came across in researching the "Iron Lady."

- Click here to see panoramic and virtual tours.

- Click here for more videos (including New Years fireworks)

BASIC FACTS ABOUT THE EIFFEL TOWER

Date of birth: March 31, 1889 (hoisting the flag to the top), built for
the Universal Exhibition in celebration of the French Revolution.

Age: 119 years

Construction: 1887 to 1889 (2 years, 2 months
and 5 days)

Composition: 18,038 pieces, 2,500,000 rivets

Weight of the metal structure: 7,300 tons

Total weight: 10,100 tons

Height: 324m (height with flagpole)

Numbers of visitors through Dec. 31, 2007: 236,445,812

Number of steps: 1665

Owner: City of Paris

JUST FOR FUN

- The tower lost the title of world's tallest structure in 1930 when the
Chrysler Building was completed in New York City.

- It takes a staff of more than 500 people to bring the Eiffel Tower to
life each day.

- During the Nazi occupation in 1940 elevator cables were cut so Adolf
Hitler would have to use the stairs.

- For proof that the tower is the most-visited monument in the world
consider the fact that the demand for entrance tickets consumes two tons
of paper each year.

- Special industrial cleaning teams keep the Tower in tip-top condition.
Throughout the year they use four tons of paper or rag wipes, 10,000 units
of detergents, 400 liters of metal cleansers and 25,000 garbage bags.

- Con artist Victor Lustig "sold" the tower for scrap metal in 1925.

- During the winter months the tower hosts an ice skating rink on the
first floor.

- An old restaurant midway up on the tower was dismantled in the 1980s and
put back together again on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans.