000 02698cam a22003253u 4500
001 77985
003 UtSlPG
005 20260610134816.0
006 m
007 cr n
008 260607r20261887utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d
040 _aUtSlPG
041 7 _afr
_2iso639-1
050 4 _aTH
100 1 _aLefèvre, Ernest,
_d1833-1889
245 1 3 _aLa Tour Eiffel
264 1 _aSalt Lake City, UT :
_bProject Gutenberg,
_c2026
300 _a1 online resource :
_bmultiple file formats
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
337 _acomputer
_bc
_2rdamedia
338 _aonline resource
_bcr
_2rdacarrier
500 _aRelease date is 2026-02-20
508 _aClaudine Corbasson (This file was produced from images generously made available by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica))
520 _aLa Tour Eiffel by Gustave Eiffel is a historical pamphlet written in the late 19th century. It records a high-profile cultural controversy: a public manifesto by leading artists and writers denouncing the planned Eiffel Tower, paired with the engineer’s detailed rebuttal defending its conception, aesthetics, usefulness, and symbolic value. The text opens with a protest letter to Adolphe Alphand, asserting that the proposed iron tower is useless and monstrous, a factory chimney set to disfigure Paris and dwarf its revered monuments; the signatories urge Alphand to intervene and, failing that, to at least bear witness to an honorable dissent. A journalist then summarizes an interview in which the engineer answers point by point: he notes the protest’s lateness given signed contracts and construction already underway, outlines the financial and concession arrangements, and argues that aesthetic judgment is premature before the work exists. He contends that structural necessity—especially resistance to wind—will yield elegant lines, invokes the appeal of the colossal (as with the pyramids), and rejects the idea that height “crushes” nearby landmarks. Turning to utility, he cites popular enthusiasm, scientific opportunities (astronomy, meteorology, physics, plant chemistry), potential wartime communications, and the tower’s role as a testament to modern engineering. He rebuffs the sneer of a “bolted sheet-metal column” and concludes that the monument would honor France as a nation of builders, not merely entertainers. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
534 _pOriginally published:
_cParis: Le Rappel, 1887
653 _aTour Eiffel (Paris, France)
700 1 _aEiffel, Gustave,
_d1832-1923
856 4 _uhttps://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k7539850w/f1.item.zoom
856 4 0 _uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77985
999 _c118705
_d118705