# Why Did the Eiffel Tower Almost Never Exist?

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/smile-with-daniel-7904799/why-did-the-eiffel-tower-almost-never-exist
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/smile-with-daniel-7904799/why-did-the-eiffel-tower-almost-never-exist.md
Podcast: [Smile with Daniel](https://stenobird.com/podcast/smile-with-daniel-7904799)
Published: 2026-07-29T19:20:11+00:00
Episode link: https://rss.com/podcasts/smile-with-daniel/3033211
Audio file: https://content.rss.com/episodes/390398/3033211/smile-with-daniel/2026_07_29_19_20_07_eb64205c-7e61-497d-b841-fc90e5814379.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/smile-with-daniel-7904799/episodes/why-did-the-eiffel-tower-almost-never-exist
Duration seconds: 403

## Resource

Daniel looks at a photo of Paris and says he cannot imagine the city without the Eiffel Tower. Mom tells him it almost wasn't there. When Gustave Eiffel announced plans for his iron tower in 1887, some of the most celebrated writers, artists, and architects in France were furious. They published a letter in a major Paris newspaper calling it a gigantic black smokestack, a blight on Paris, and a truly tragic street lamp. Guy de Maupassant -- one of France's most famous writers -- called it an eyesore and said it was an insult to everything beautiful about the city. Alexandre Dumas's son signed the petition. Charles Garnier, who designed the Paris Opera House, signed it. These were not random critics. They were the cultural authorities of France. Eiffel built it anyway. Two million people visited during the 1889 World's Fair. And Guy de Maupassant reportedly ate lunch at the tower's restaurant regularly after it opened -- because it was the only place in Paris where he didn't have to look at it. That is Daniel's favorite detail in the episode. But the real threat came later. The tower had only been approved as a temporary structure. Eiffel's permit with the city of Paris was set to expire in 1909 -- twenty years after the Fair -- and the city could legally demolish it. The same thing had already happened to another massive structure from the same World's Fair, the Gallery of Machines, which had been the largest building in the world and was voted for demolition in 1906. The Eiffel Tower's fate was genuinely uncertain. What saved it was radio. From the late 1890s onward, Eiffel had been allowing experiments in wireless transmission from the tower. By the early 1900s, he was working with French military engineers to install a proper antenna at the summit. By 1909, the towe…

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/smile-with-daniel-7904799/episodes/why-did-the-eiffel-tower-almost-never-exist/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/smile-with-daniel-7904799/why-did-the-eiffel-tower-almost-never-exist.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.