Editing Eiffel Tower (section)

===Origin===
The design of the Eiffel Tower is attributed to [[Maurice Koechlin]] and [[Émile Nouguier]], two senior engineers working for the [[Gustave Eiffel|Compagnie des Établissements Eiffel]]. It was envisaged after discussion about a suitable centrepiece for the proposed [[Exposition Universelle (1889)|1889 Exposition Universelle]], a [[world's fair]] to celebrate the centennial of the [[French Revolution]]. In May 1884, working at home, Koechlin made a sketch of their idea, 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 [[truss]]es at regular intervals".<ref>Harvie, 2006 p. 78.</ref> Eiffel initially showed little enthusiasm, but he did approve further study, and the two engineers then asked [[Stephen Sauvestre]], the head of the company's architectural department, to contribute to the design. Sauvestre added decorative arches to the base of the tower, a glass pavilion to the first level, and other embellishments.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

[[File:Maurice koechlin pylone.jpg|thumb|left|upright|First drawing of the Eiffel Tower by Maurice Koechlin including size comparison with other Parisian landmarks such as [[Notre Dame de Paris]], the [[Île aux Cygnes#Statue of Liberty replica|Statue of Liberty]], and the [[Vendôme Column]]]]

The new version gained Eiffel's support: he bought the rights to the patent on the design which Koechlin, Nouguier, and Sauvestre had taken out, and the design was put on display at the Exhibition of Decorative Arts in the autumn of 1884 under the company name. On 30 March 1885, Eiffel presented his plans to the {{lang|fr|Société des Ingénieurs Civils}}; after discussing the technical problems and emphasising the practical uses of the tower, he finished his talk by saying the tower would symbolise {{blockquote|style=text-align:justify|text=[n]ot only the art of the modern engineer, but also the century of Industry and Science in which we are living, and for which the way was prepared by the great scientific movement of the eighteenth century and by the Revolution of 1789, to which this monument will be built as an expression of France's gratitude.<ref name=loyrette116>Loyrette, p. 116.</ref>}}

Little progress was made until 1886, when [[Jules Grévy]] was re-elected as president of France and [[Édouard Lockroy]] was appointed as minister for trade. A budget for the exposition was passed and, on 1 May, Lockroy announced an alteration to the terms of the open competition being held for a centrepiece to the exposition, which effectively made the selection of Eiffel's design a foregone conclusion, as entries had to include a study for a {{convert|300|m|ft|abbr=on}} four-sided metal tower on the Champ de Mars.<ref name=loyrette116/> (A 300-metre tower was then considered a herculean engineering effort.) On 12 May, a commission was set up to examine Eiffel's scheme and its rivals, which, a month later, decided that all the proposals except Eiffel's were either impractical or lacking in details.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

After some debate about the exact location of the tower, a contract was signed on 8 January 1887. Eiffel signed it acting in his own capacity rather than as the representative of his company, the contract granting him 1.5 million [[French franc|francs]] toward the construction costs: less than a quarter of the estimated 6.5 million francs. Eiffel was to receive all income from the commercial exploitation of the tower during the exhibition and for the next 20 years. He later established a separate company to manage the tower, putting up half the necessary capital himself.<ref>Loyrette, 1985 p. 121.</ref>

A French bank, the ''[[Crédit Industriel et Commercial]]'' (CIC), helped finance the construction of the Eiffel Tower. During the period of the tower's construction, the CIC was acquiring funds from [[Predatory lending|predatory loans]] to the [[National Bank of Haiti]], some of which went towards the financing of the tower. These loans were connected to [[Haiti indemnity controversy|an indemnity controversy]] that saw France force Haiti's government to financially compensate French slaveowners for lost income as a result of the [[Haitian Revolution]], and required Haiti to pay the CIC and its partner nearly half of all taxes collected on exports, "effectively choking off the nation's primary source of income". According to ''[[The New York Times]]'', "[at] a time when the [CIC] was helping finance one of the world's best-known landmarks, the Eiffel Tower, as a monument to French liberty, it was choking Haiti's economy, taking much of the young nation's income back to Paris and impairing its ability to start schools, hospitals and the other building blocks of an independent country."<ref name=":6">{{Cite news|first1=Matt|last1=Apuzzo|first2=Constant|last2=Méheut|first3=Selam|last3=Gebrekidan|first4=Catherine|last4=Porter|title=How a French Bank Captured Haiti|website=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/20/world/french-banks-haiti-cic.html|date=20 May 2022|access-date=24 May 2022|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>