26 July 2012
Quote of the Day: Cracked
From 5 Iconic Buildings that Were Barely Saved from Destruction:
But the detractors knew that they wouldn't have to put up with it for too long, because the [Eiffel] tower was only a temporary construction, planned to be demolished after 20 years.
That's right: When Gustave Eiffel designed the tower, he had to abide by the rules of the "build a huge freaking thing" contest for the 1889 World's Fair (the only reason the tower was built), with one of the stipulations being that it could easily be torn down when the city of Paris got the land back from a 20-year lease. So Eiffel ordered up a metric shit-ton of the cheapest iron he could get his hands on, tinker-toyed it up into the tallest structure the world had ever seen and said, "Eh, that looks like it should last at least 20 years."
But the detractors knew that they wouldn't have to put up with it for too long, because the [Eiffel] tower was only a temporary construction, planned to be demolished after 20 years.
That's right: When Gustave Eiffel designed the tower, he had to abide by the rules of the "build a huge freaking thing" contest for the 1889 World's Fair (the only reason the tower was built), with one of the stipulations being that it could easily be torn down when the city of Paris got the land back from a 20-year lease. So Eiffel ordered up a metric shit-ton of the cheapest iron he could get his hands on, tinker-toyed it up into the tallest structure the world had ever seen and said, "Eh, that looks like it should last at least 20 years."
Labels: random silliness
# posted by mamurd @ 9:12 PM 
