Modern impact from Eiffel Tower's engineering

Part 2: More than just a breathtaking innovation in design, Eiffel’s tower served to change construction and engineering forever. Summit Steel Buildings relies on the same methodology for all their work.

Read the first part of this article: "Eiffel Tower is a surprising precursor to modern pre-engineering".

• View Summit Steel Buildings’ portfolio of projects.
• Learn more about how pre-engineering creates industrial and commercial buildings faster and better.

The legacy of the Eiffel company’s production process continues to have a huge impact on modern construction for creating a faster, safer and more affordable way to produce large commercial and industrial structures. 



Construction times

It only took five months to build the foundations and twenty-one more to finish assembling the metal pieces of the Tower. Once the foundation had been laid and the base steel structure was in place, the teams only had to add on the remaining 1,000 feet of iron lattice. Considering the rudimentary means available at that period, this can be considered record speed. “The assembly of the Eiffel Tower was a marvel of precision, as all chroniclers of the period agree.” The construction work began in January 1887 and was finished on March 31, 1889.

By comparison, the Great Pyramid of Giza took 20 years to complete, the Leaning Tower of Pisa was built over 199 years, while the Statue of Liberty, CN Tower and The Shard in England required nine years, two years and three years respectively (source). Even with today’s materials and technology, towers are built in roughly the same time as Eiffel’s because of the techniques his company developed. 



Improved safety

The Eiffel Tower also created a legacy of safety for modern construction. Thanks to safety precautions like guard-rails and the pre-engineering process, only one worker died during its construction. It’s amazing given the historical photos and footage of workers without modern safety equipment hundreds of feet in the air.

Compare that total to the five workers who died in slip-and-fall or struck-by accidents at the Empire State Building over the 13 months of its construction (1929-1930). With 3,400 workers in total, that's a rate of 1.47 deaths per thousand. The World Trade Center in 1973, which had a similar total workforce, was a dozen times more deadly: it is New York's most lethal construction project with 60 fatalities (source).



Lower costs

Pre-engineered steel buildings are much more affordable than construction using lumber or other traditional building materials, such as brick and mortar. Working with metal solutions are generally 30% less and take about as third as long to complete. Then, as it is now, Eiffel knew his iron pre-fabrication production method was the most economical way to build.

To understand the value of the Eiffel Tower, it cost $1.5 million (USD) to build the tower in 1889. Adjusting for inflation using the Consumer Price Index (CPI), this comes to $44 million (source). Eiffel’s company financed the entire project and expected to recoup the investment through visitor admission fees. He originally expected he could be repaid within 10 years. It was much more profitable in practice. Eiffel recouped his initial investment in full within two years.

In 2011, a National Geographic Channel program called “Pricing the Priceless” speculated that a full-size replica of the Eiffel Tower would cost approximately US$480 million to build. This would be more than ten times the cost of the original in current rates (8 million francs or US$40 million in 2018 dollars).

Build your next facility like Eiffel did, build with steel pre-engineering

Understanding the legacy of construction and engineering from early metal structures is important for Summit Steel Buildings. It is easier to understand the future of the industry once we have learned and paid respect to the lessons of the past. The fact that the process used to construct the Eiffel Tower still has a profound impact on the way we construct buildings today is worth remembering. Eiffel’s process, the precursor of modern pre-engineering with insulated steel panels, works in the favour of clients’ projects by producing buildings faster, safer and at a much more affordable cost.

When you want to build a structure that will create a lifelong legacy, reach out to us by email or call us at 877-417-8335. for your free quote and preliminary drawings.

Read Part One of the impact the Eiffel Tower's engineering has had on modern projects: "Eiffel Tower is a surprising precursor to modern pre-engineering"...

BONUS: Learn other fun facts about the Eiffel Tower.