Alexandre Gustave Eiffel ( /ˈaɪfəl/ French pronunciation: [efɛl]) (December 15, 1832 – December 27, 1923) was a French civil engineer and architect. A graduate of the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, he made his name with various bridges for the French railway network, most famously the Garabit viaduct. He is best known for the world-famous Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris, France. After his retirement from e...
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Alexandre Gustave Eiffel ( /ˈaɪfəl/ French pronunciation: [efɛl]) (December 15, 1832 – December 27, 1923) was a French civil engineer and architect. A graduate of the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, he made his name with various bridges for the French railway network, most famously the Garabit viaduct. He is best known for the world-famous Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris, France. After his retirement from engineering, Eiffel concentrated his energies on research into meteorology and aerodynamics, making important contributions in both fields.
Gustave Eiffel was born in Dijon, in the Côte-d'Or department of France, the first child of Alexandre and Catherine Eiffel. The family was originally from Germany, being descended from Jean-René Bönickhausen, who emigrated from Marmagen and settled in Paris at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The family adopted the name Eiffel as a reference to the Eifel mountains in the region from which it had...
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