The Eiffel Tower, in addition to being a world-famous monument and a true tourist attraction that put Paris (more if possible) on the agenda of any traveler, is one of the monuments that gets the most benefit and that makes the best use of its lighting. Not only to be seen at night, but as a nighttime attraction and often as advertising support.
The truth is that the enormous monument did not begin to be liked by the French until tourism began to arrive in the 1970s and its profitability became positive. Opened in 1889, it was not well received and if it had not been for the perseverance of Gustave Eiffel, it would surely have been dismantled. However, today it is one of the most recognized monuments and, by far, one of the ones that wins the most when it is well lit. The first lighting that the Eiffel Tower had was the attraction for the Universal Exhibition in Paris. During the first Expo it was illuminated with fireworks and gas lights. Later, at the Universal Exhibition of 1900 it looked like this:
A light that I personally like a lot. Only illuminating the edges and edge of the tower and with very few details, in addition, the two characteristic photos that illuminate Paris every night are already there. And in the middle of 2010 they are still there, by the way.
One of the strangest and most characteristic lighting dates back to 1925, when CitroĆ«n decided to carry out a large advertising campaign in the tower, installing more than 250,000 light bulbs. This image appears in the CitroĆ«n C3 advertising, which is one of the few times that the tower was used in its entirety as an advertising medium. It must be remembered that in 1925 the tower did not enjoy much popularity among the French, so AndrĆ© CitroĆ«nās move was relatively risky.
The tower continued to have interior lighting for many years. Every night huge spotlights kept it illuminated from the inside and flashing reddish and orange colors all over Paris (like the color it is painted). To welcome the year 2000, the French government decided to install 20,000 light bulbs to illuminate the arrival of the millennium (we are not going to discuss whether it arrived in 2000 or 2001, please). And the result was truly spectacular thanks to them and the incredible fireworks choreography that took place that night:
For the arrival of the year 2000 the tower also had a huge counter that announced exactly the days left to arrive, which also created a different image since during the day the tower does not show lighting but it did have the enormous light panel.
For 2000 its lights were changed, something that requires 20 climbers hanging from the outside and three months to change the more than 20,000 necessary lights, bulbs that increase the weight of the tower by about eight tons and that, when placed in a row, would require 18 kilometers, with its 30 kilometers of cable, of course. And in 2003, some 2000 flashes were added which would give a new effect available to those in charge of designing the monumentās lighting. In the image those flashes are the white dots. I have seen that live. :P
During 2008 the tower was illuminated differently to commemorate Franceās presidency of the European Union, and in 2009 it was illuminated according to the colors of Turkey to commemorate an exhibition about the country (which had great controversy).
Would you like to know how the Eiffel Tower is illuminated right now? Well, itās very simple, there are thousands of webcams focused on it. I found one of the ones that seems to work best on Paris Live, a site that has several webcams āmonitoringā the city of light and love throughout the day.