CHAPTER 7

What Can You Do with a Tower?

Paris officials wanted to take down the tower when the fair closed. That had been the plan from the start. The city owned the land it was built on, and the city wanted it back. Gustave, on the other hand, hoped the tower would stand forever.

An agreement was finally signed. His tower could remain where it was until 1909. That was better, but not good enough for Gustave. He now had twenty years to figure out how to make the tower a permanent landmark, one that would stand for hundreds of years.

Gustave soon came up with a plan. At that time, people used telegraphs to send messages long distances over land. At sea, ships in trouble used Morse code. Messages were carried through wires and cables under the ocean.

But something new was happening. An inventor named Guglielmo Marconi was working on a way to send messages long distances through the air on radio waves. His invention did not use wires. Messages would be transmitted and received using an antenna.

Wireless radio waves fascinated Gustave. He had been using his tower to conduct weather experiments. Why not use it to experiment with radio waves?

Gustave worked hard. He brought in an inventor named Eugène Ducretet to help. They raised an antenna above the third floor. Finally, on November 5, 1898, a signal was sent from the tower and picked up at the Panthéon, about three miles away. Still, Paris officials insisted the tower had to be taken down in 1909.

Gustave was desperate. How could he convince the officials to let his tower stand? Hadn’t they been impressed with his radio work?

Then Gustave had a brainstorm. Wasn’t the French military doing wireless experiments? Didn’t it need a better way to transmit and receive messages?

Gustave went to the military. Okay, the officials said. They’d agree to try using the tower for some of their experiments. The military installed better and higher antennas. It worked. They could send clearer messages and orders to more distant soldiers and sailors.

The military was convinced. Now Gustave had to convince the Paris officials. It took time, but eventually, on January 1, 1910, an agreement to save the Eiffel Tower was signed.

Over the years, new ways to use radio waves were discovered. More advanced wireless devices were invented. By 1920, a machine called the radio could broadcast programs that people listened to from far away. In the mid-twentieth century, television began broadcasting programs that people could see as well as hear. The tower was becoming more and more important. Higher antennas were added to help send and receive signals.

Today, 120 antennas at the top of the Eiffel Tower help send messages to the farthest points of the globe.

Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1937)

Guglielmo Marconi was born in Bologna, Italy, on April 25, 1874. When he was a boy, he was fascinated by science. As he grew older, he became interested in the way people sent and received messages and signals over long distances. At the time, information was transmitted over wires and cables.

Marconi had a better idea. Maybe it was possible to send signals through the air using electromagnetic radiation. He created equipment that produced radio waves. Then he conducted experiments. Before long, he was able to send signals, first one mile, then twelve miles.

Marconi wondered how far his signals could go. Could a wireless signal be sent from England to Newfoundland, Canada? It was 2,100 miles, all the way across the Atlantic Ocean. Many people thought it was impossible. But Marconi decided to try.

On December 12, 1901, he succeeded. No wires or cables were used. Wireless was born.

In September 1914, Europe was fighting World War I. German troops had taken over Belgium. They were fighting to capture France. As the Germans moved closer to Paris, French soldiers fought one of the most important battles of the war. It took place at the Marne River, thirty miles from Paris.

The tower was closed to the public during the war, but the antennas continued to be used. As the battle raged on, messages to French troops were being transmitted from the top of the tower. Also, the tower’s transmitters were able to pick up German messages. This helped the French soldiers know what the enemy was up to. The Battle of the Marne lasted about a week. When it was over, the Germans retreated. Paris was safe. In 1918, Germany surrendered, ending World War I.

A little more than twenty years later, Germany again went to war against many countries in Europe, including France. In 1940, German Nazi soldiers moved into the center of Paris to occupy the city. It was a terrible time for France.

At the Eiffel Tower, a French fireman was forced to take down the national flag of France. The Nazis then raised their own flag.

However, by 1944, Adolf Hitler, the Nazi leader, could see that Germany was losing the war. So he called in General Dietrich von Choltitz. He was the German commander and governor of occupied Paris. Hitler gave him an order: Before Paris was free again, von Choltitz must reduce the city to rubble. No famous building or monument could be left standing. Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Louvre Museum, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, and other beloved Parisian landmarks must be blown up. Under no circumstances should von Choltitz leave Paris without destroying it.

Notre-Dame Cathedral

The battle to free Paris from the Germans began in August 1944. The Allied troops (Americans and British) were moving closer and closer to Paris. Soon they would arrive and liberate the city. Hitler ordered that explosives be put in place around Paris—on bridges, buildings, and monuments. Von Choltitz followed these orders. But he did not obey Hitler’s final command. He never pushed the buttons that would have fired the explosives.

On August 24, French and American troops moved into Paris. Parisians took up guns and rushed into the streets to help win back their city. The Germans surrendered on August 25, 1944.

Von Choltitz had plenty of time and opportunity to destroy Paris. Why, instead, did he save the city? His reasons are still unclear.

There are many different theories. Von Choltitz himself stated, “If for the first time I had disobeyed, it was because I knew that Hitler was insane.” His son maintained his father understood there was no reason to take down the buildings and chose to save the city.

French people found that impossible to believe. Von Choltitz had killed many Parisians; he had no love for their city. So perhaps somewhere in Paris, a Parisian stopped von Choltitz from that horrible act.

With Paris now freed, the moment had come to pull down the hated Nazi flag from the Eiffel Tower. The same man who had removed the French flag in 1940 was chosen to put up the tricolore of blue, white, and red. But all French flags had been destroyed by the Nazis during the war. So he ended up making a three-color flag out of sheets, then climbed to the top of the tower and raised the giant banner.

The Eiffel Tower stood proud once more, truly a symbol of France’s liberty.