Eiffel Tower closed by staff strike on 100th anniversary of Gustave Eiffel's death

Doug Cunningham
·2 min read
UPI
The Eiffel Tower was closed Wednesday on the 100th anniversary of its creator's death as workers launched a strike over the management of the French landmark. File Photo by Christophe Petit Tesson/EPA-EFE
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Dec. 27 (UPI) -- The Eiffel Tower closed Wednesday after workers went on strike on the day Gustave Eiffel died 100 years ago.

"Due to a strike action of a part of the Eiffel Tower personnel, the Eiffel Tower is currently closed," a statement on the tower's web site said. "We apologize for the inconvenience."

The CGT union said the strike is over how the Eiffel Tower is managed, asserting that its economic model is untenable.

The union staff decided to strike, CGT said, because managers of the Tower were "heading for disaster" underestimating how many people visit each year and the maintenance costs for the Tower and its renovation.

French President Emmanuel Macron paid homage to tower's creator in a post on X.

"100 years since Gustave Eiffel passed away. But his legacy to the world is very much alive!" Macron wrote.

Maintenance work is scheduled on the Tower's top floor Jan. 8 - Feb. 9 and it will also be temporarily closed during that annual scheduled work.

To mark the centenary of Eiffel's death a special edition tour was set for 9 p.m. local time on the Eiffel Tower's Facebook page.

A post from a Canadian visitor on the Tower's X account expressed disappointment over the strike.

"It would have been good especially not to go on strike on the centenary day! We come from Canada to see the Tower among other things and we come across a surprise strike! THANKS!!! The children were quite disappointed!," the post from Olivier Maily said.

The Eiffel Tower was evacuated for several hours in August as police investigated a bomb threat. No bomb was found.

The Tower was built between 1887 and 1889 and is made of iron, not steel. It is 1014 feet high and first opened to the public during a World's Fair on May 15, 1889. It was the tallest building in the world at the time.

A total of nearly 330 million visitors have used stairs or elevators to ascend it since 1889. The structure weighs approximately 10,100 tons. It is protected by a thick coat of paint that must be re-applied every 7 years. The paint itself weighs 60 tons.