He was born on the 15th of December 1832 in Dijon in France. He was a descendant of Jean–René
Bönickhausen, who emigrated from the German town of Marmagen and settled in Paris at the
beginning of the eighteenth century. The family adopted the name Eiffel as a reference to the Eifel
mountains in the region from which it had come. Although the family always used the name Eiffel,
Gustave's name was registered at birth as Bönickhausen, and was not formally changed to Eiffel
until 1880.
Eiffel had hoped to enter the École
Polytechnique, but his tutors decided that his
performance was not good enough, and instead
he qualified for entry to the École Centrale des
Arts et Manufactures in Paris, which offered a
rather more vocational training. During his
second year he chose to specialize in
chemistry, and graduated 13th of the 80
candidates in 1855. This was the year that
Paris hosted the first World's Fair, and Eiffel
was bought a season ticket by his mother.
Early career
After graduation, Eiffel had hoped to find work in his uncle's works
in Dijon, but a family dispute made this impossible. Eiffel had a job
with the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer de l'Ouest, for whom Eiffel
produced his first bridge design, a 22 m (72 ft) sheet iron bridge for
the Saint Germaine railway.
Eiffel & Cie
At the end of 1866 Eiffel managed to borrow enough money to set up his own workshops at 48 Rue
Fouquet in Levallois-Perret. His first important commission was for two viaducts for the railway
line between Lyon and Bordeaux, and the company also began to undertake work in other countries,
including the church of San Marcos in Arica, Chile, which was an all-metal prefabricated building,
manufactured in France and shipped to South America in pieces to be assembled on site.
In 1881 Eiffel was contacted by Auguste Bartholdi who was in need of an engineer to help him to
realise the Statue of Liberty. Some work had already been carried out by Eugène Viollet-Le-Duc,
but he had died in 1879.
The Eiffel Tower
Magazine Without Borders
The design of the Eiffel Tower was originated by
Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier, who had
discussed ideas for a centrepiece for the 1889
Exposition Universelle. In May 1884 Koechlin,
working at his home, made an outline drawing of
their scheme, described by him as "a great pylon,
consisting of four lattice girders standing apart at the
base and coming together at the top, joined together
by metal trusses at regular intervals". Initially Eiffel
showed little enthusiasm, although he did sanction
further study of the project, and the two engineers
Issue n°1
11/45