The Eiffel Tower Seems To Be In Dire Need Of Repairs

The star of Paris’ skyline, the Eiffel Tower, is in desperate need of repairs and maintenance. Ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games to be held in Paris, the tower is only being repainted before it becomes the next host.  

The Eiffel Tower is visited by almost seven million tourists each year, making it the most-visited landmark in the world, says the official website. Initially, the 1,063-foot structure was made to be up only for 20 years before being taken down.

Now, over a century later and the Iron Lady is still the gem of the city, albeit a rusting one. Years of maintenance have kept it standing but it may be near its tether. The upcoming €60 million (US$ 61.6 million) paint job will be the 20th time in history that the monument has been repainted.  

The reports of the landmark falling apart were leaked to French magazine Marianne, which states that this is not a new problem. The publication has over a decade’s worth of confidential reports via experts that cite the tower’s ever-evolving decrepit state.  

Sete, the manager of the Eiffel Tower which is also 99% run by city hall, has not made a comment on the report of the declining state of the structure. However, it is suspected that the closure of the structure for proper repairing is being withheld for the time being due to the potential loss in revenue aggravated by the pandemic. Purportedly, the city has suffered a loss of €52 million (US$53.3 million) in income from the landmark alone as a result of lockdown measures.

On the brighter side of things, Marianne claims that an expert has assured that the building is not going to “fall tomorrow” and it will continue to stand proud and tall for years to come. On the Eiffel Tower’s site, Bertrand Lemoine, an architect and engineer, states that the main downfall of the property is rust and that constant fresh coats of paint could leave it standing eternally.  

[via CNN and The Guardian, Photo 128623115 © Sergii Kolesnyk | Dreamstime.com]