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The Eiffel Tower in 2022: older and taller

 




The Eiffel Tower in Paris turned 133 years-old on 31 March 2022. It grew older, but also taller. 


On 15 March 2022, with the installation of a new digital terrestrial TDF radio antenna, Eiffel Tower grew by 6 metres (20 feet), making it now 330 metres (1,083 feet) tall. It was previously 324 metres (1,063 feet) tall. 


A helicopter was used to install the radio antenna above the existing antennas (dozens of them).


The additional 6 metres of the tower aims to improve digital radio coverage in Paris. 


The new antenna enables TDF to broadcast nearly 30 Digital Terrestrial Televsion (DTT) channels and 32 Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB+) radio stations to 12 million people in the Ile-de-France within a radius of nearly 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the Eiffel Tower. DAB+ allows 13 radio stations to be broadcast on the same frequency, whereas on the Frequency Modulation (FM) band each radio station has its own frequency. There is now also a stronger signal with the dedicated DAB+ receiver which will provide higher sound quality for radio listeners. 


So, the Eiffel Tower is taller, defying the human principle that the older you get, the more you shrink. Not so with the Eiffel Tower. In 1889, during its construction, it was called The 300 Metre Tower. That means it was 300 metres (984 feet) tall, and had not yet been named The Iron Lady, nor the name of its creator, engineer Gustave Eiffel.


Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923) built the 300-metre (984 feet) Eiffel Tower for the 1889 World Fair in Paris. On the day of inauguration, 31 March 1889, a large flagpole and French flag was added to the Tower, making it 312 metres (1,024 feet) tall. In 1949, the flag was removed and the first television antennas were attached to the flagpole, as well as meteorology (weather) sensors and equipment, but they did not add to the Tower’s height. In 1956, there was a fire at the top, and the Tower was renovated. In 1957, with the rise of television, engineers added live broadcasting towers to broadcast three TV channels, and a FM radio transmitter was also added – raising the Eiffel Tower to 320.75 metres (1,050 feet). In 2020, the installation of a new Ultra High Frequency (UHF) antenna for DTT was added, which raised the Tower’s height to 324-metre (1,063 feet).

 

When it was closed during the first lockdown from March 2020 for three months, it was the site’s longest period out of action since the Second World War from 1939-1945. Since confinement measures were imposed from March to May 2020, tourism numbers declined by about 80% compared to the same months in previous years. When the Eiffel Tower re-opened, health and hygiene measures were put in place, such as a one-way traffic system on the staircases, and all visitors over the age of 11 were required to wear a face covering.Eiffel Tower hygiene consultant Alain Miralles said, “The day cleaning teams will be able to clean all the points of contact every two hours, from the opening of the site to its closing.” 

 

And so, the Eiffel Tower continues to adapt to environmental changes and technological innovations, and continues getting older and taller. 













 Photographs: Martina Nicolls

 

 

The official website of the Eiffel Tower is https://www.toureiffel

 

MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS  is an international aid and development consultant, and the author  of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce  (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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