The Eiffel Tower was supposed to be demolished after 20 years. Instead, it became the most visited paid monument in the world. Life comes at you fast.
When Gustave Eiffel built it for the 1889 World's Fair, Parisians hated it with a passion usually reserved for mimes. A group of artists signed a petition calling it a "metal asparagus" and a "truly tragic street lamp." Guy de Maupassant reportedly ate lunch at the tower's restaurant every day because it was the only place in Paris where he couldn't see it.
The tower saved itself by becoming useful for radio transmission. During World War I, it intercepted enemy communications that led to the arrest of the famous spy Mata Hari. Hard to demolish something when it's catching spies.
Here's a weird one: It's illegal to publish photos of the Eiffel Tower at night. The lighting design is copyrighted, so commercial photos of the tower's light show technically require permission. Your Instagram is probably fine, but technically... illegal.
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he tower is repainted every 7 years, requiring 60 tons of paint. It's been yellow, red-brown, and is now a specially created color called "Eiffel Tower Brown." Fancy.
