The Machines That Built the Eiffel Tower (1887-1889)

To build the tallest structure on Earth, Gustave Eiffel needed machines that could climb the tower faster than it could rise. Four steam cranes rode up the inside of the iron legs, lifting 3 tonnes at a time and inching upward just 12 millimetres with every pull of a lever. This is the story of the forgotten machines that actually built the Eiffel Tower, from the compressed-air caissons sunk beneath the Seine to the 2.5 million rivets driven by hand. Enjoyed this documentary? Subscribe for more deep dives into the world's most powerful machines: 👉 Construction Legends:    / @constructionlegends   ☕ Support our work: https://buymeacoffee.com/Construction... Most films about the Eiffel Tower focus on the artists who protested it or the bet Gustave Eiffel placed on its future. This documentary is about something else entirely: the iron, the machines, and the men who ran them. We follow the 18,038 pieces cut to a tenth of a millimetre in the Levallois-Perret workshop, the compressed-air caissons sunk beneath the river Seine, the four climbing steam cranes that walked up the legs on the elevator rails, the 800-tonne hydraulic presses and sand boxes that leveled the first platform to within a millimetre, and the 2.5 million rivets that hold it all together. And we answer the question almost every account gets wrong: in more than two years of building the most dangerous structure of its age, how many men actually died? 📌 CHAPTERS 00:00 The Tower Nobody Believed In 03:32 Built in a Workshop, Not in Paris 07:41 Beneath the Seine: The Compressed-Air Caissons 12:29 The Cranes That Climbed the Tower 21:54 Two Million Rivets and the One Death SOURCES The Eiffel Tower and its steam engines - Official Eiffel Tower: https://www.toureiffel.paris/en/news/... The Rivets of the Eiffel Tower - Wonders of the World: https://www.wonders-of-the-world.net/... Eiffel Tower - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiffel_... #construction #heavymachinery #engineering #crane #excavator #megaproject #documentary #eiffeltower #gustaveeiffel #paris #ironwork #steamcrane #victorianengineering #1889