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What event was the Eiffel Tower built for?
It was meant to stand for 20 years, but proved useful as a radio mast.
The 1889 Exposition Universelle ran from 15 May to 6 November in Paris and marked the centenary of the French Revolution. Organizers wanted a centerpiece that would show off French engineering, and the iron tower designed through the firm of Gustave Eiffel was chosen for the entrance to the fairground on the Champ de Mars. The operator of the monument reports that it drew roughly 1.95 million visitors during the fair, around 12,000 a day, and that elevators began operating on 26 May.
The tower was not welcomed by everyone. A group of artists and writers signed a public protest against building it in the heart of Paris. Charles Gounod was among the signatories, yet he later attended a lunch hosted by Eiffel, which shows how contested and fluid opinion was. Like other fair pavilions, it was granted a limited-term permit and was expected to be taken down after about twenty years, a point commonly repeated in histories of the tower.
What saved it was usefulness. Its height made it an excellent platform for experiments in meteorology, aerodynamics and, above all, radio telegraphy. Antennas mounted on the structure in the early twentieth century gave the city a practical reason to keep it, and the permit was extended and eventually became effectively permanent. A frequent misconception is that it was always meant to be a lasting monument. The evidence instead shows it began as a temporary showpiece that became a symbol of Paris largely because it proved its worth after the fair closed.