Gustave Bonickhausen dit Eiffel was born on December 15, 1832 in Dijon into a family originally from the Rhineland but established in France since the 18th century. A graduate of the École centrale des arts et manufactures in 1855, the young Eiffel was first destined for chemistry, thinking of taking over his uncle's chemical factory. But a family dispute put an end to this project and Gustave Eiffel then turned to metal construction. In 1856, he became secretary to Charles Nepveu, an entrepreneur specializing in this discipline, and carried out his first works.
In 1857, aged only 25, he was entrusted with the management of a major project: the construction of the Bordeaux railway bridge. The success of this achievement allowed him to experiment with techniques that he would later take up again - such as the use of compressed air in the foundations of the bridge piers, the motif of the crosses of Saint Andrew, the choice of a wrought iron and the standardization of parts – and gave the young engineer the opportunity to make himself known. In 1866, after having worked for several years on his own account, he created his own company in Levallois-Perret and chained orders, carrying out increasingly ambitious works, including: the Budapest station, the Porto and Garabit viaducts, the dome of the Nice observatory or the structure of the Statue of Liberty in New York.
But it is obviously the tower built for the Universal Exhibition of 1889 that will consecrate its international fame. This gigantic monument 300 meters high, which will require more than 6,300 tons of iron, was built on the Champ-de-Mars between 1887 and 1889 by 250 workers. Officially inaugurated on March 31, 1889, the Eiffel Tower first sparked controversy before becoming the symbol of Paris, then of France.
Over the next three decades, Gustave Eiffel would use his tower as an incredible testing ground. Patron, he finances the research of the TSF. A scientist, he asserted himself as one of the fathers of modern meteorology, whose methods of analysis he rationalized, and above all of aerodynamics. We often forget that Eiffel, through his studies of the laws of the air, and the wind tunnels he invented and operated, played a key role in the development of aviation.
This great Frenchman passed away, surrounded by his family, on December 27, 1923, after a wonderfully full life devoted entirely to progress.
