It has been a target for destruction by terrorists with hijacked planes since before 9/11. It hosts an annual summer concert and extravagant fireworks display on the French national day. President Emmanuel Macron celebrated there on the night of his re-election in April. And it is being dolled up with fresh paint for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The Eiffel Tower remains the pre-eminent symbol of Paris and of France. But it’s rusting.
On the face of it, the corrosion is not a surprise. Like any structure made of iron or steel — it is composed of 18,038 pieces of “puddled iron” held together with 2.5mn rivets — the tower built in 1889 for the World Exhibition is prone to oxidation. The same is true of the Forth bridge, a steel rail bridge built at the same time in Scotland that needed constant repainting and became a byword for a labour without end.