Sometimes an intricately engineered structure is built with the intention of removing it after a specified amount of time but ends up becoming an icon of the city in which it dwells. The Eiffel Tower is an excellent example. Constructed over a two-year period from 1887 to 1889, this now-historic symbol of Paris was designed by Gustave Eiffel for the International Exposition of 1889 (sort of a World’s Fair of the time). Eiffel built the structure like a gigantic erector set, using tens of thousands of pieces of steel and multiple tons of fasteners (nuts, bolts, and washers).
Parisians considered the 984-foot-tall structure to be an eyesore, so they were overjoyed that the city had only granted a 20-year permit for its
