Eiffel Tower

Did you know? A month after Gustave Eiffel was given the contact to build the now landmark tower, a petition appeared in Le Temps on February 14, 1887 to demand that "in the name of good taste, Eiffel cease and desist with his menace to French history." The petition was signed by, among others, Charles Gounod (composer), Charles Garnier (architect of the Paris Opera) and writers Alexander Dumas and Guy de Maupassant. (Source: Elaine Brody, Paris: The Musical Kaleidoscope 1870-1925 (New York:1987) p.87