Once hated as ‘ugly’ and a ‘tragic street lamp’, Paris’s famous Eiffel Tower was almost demolished

Before It Became a Symbol of Love, Paris’s Eiffel Tower Was Nearly Torn Down

The Eiffel Tower, the world’s ultimate symbol of love, hides a past that’s anything but romantic. Long before it became the glittering icon of Parisian charm and proposal goals, it was called “monstrous,” “useless,” and even a “tragic street lamp.”

And believe it or not, the Tower we now see in countless postcards was once just a 20-year experiment destined for demolition.

Back in June 1884, two engineers, Emile Nouguier and Maurice Koechlin, dreamed up a 300-meter iron tower unlike anything Paris had seen. Their boss, Gustave Eiffel, liked the idea enough to patent it, and by 1889, the tower was chosen as the centerpiece for the World’s Fair.

At the time, no one thought it would last. Eiffel had permission to keep the structure for just 20 years. After 1910, the city planned to tear it down.

Not everyone was swooning over the design. Paris’s top artists and writers were horrified. In 1887, a fiery open letter in Le Temps newspaper protested the construction, calling the tower “a monstrous, useless structure” that would ruin the city’s skyline.

Architect Charles Garnier, yes, the same man behind the Paris Opera, called it “this horrible thing.” Others dubbed it “a tragic street lamp” or “the Tower of Babel.”

Gustave Eiffel wasn’t just an engineer, he was a strategist. To save his creation, he made the tower useful. Eiffel turned the top section into a space for weather research, radio experiments, and even early wireless transmissions.

This clever pivot gave the city a reason to keep it standing. When the original 20-year permit expired, the Eiffel Tower had become too valuable for science to be torn down.

Thanks to that, we still have it today.

Here’s where things get a little wild. Content creator Kuldeep Singhania recently resurfaced a theory connecting Nikola Tesla to the Eiffel Tower’s mysterious past.

According to him, Tesla visited Paris in 1880 and met Gustave Eiffel to share his ideas about wireless electricity. Fascinated, Eiffel allegedly incorporated some of Tesla’s concepts into his tower design, turning it into what some call a “secret antenna.”

Singhania even claims the tower intercepted a German message during World War I, helping French forces uncover a spy ring. He also mentions an underground bunker, mysterious lightning strikes during construction, and whispers of hidden technology buried beneath the iron lattice.

Sounds far-fetched? Maybe. But it adds another layer of intrigue to a monument already drenched in history and myth.

From being hated by Paris’s greatest minds to allegedly harboring a secret Tesla-inspired transmitter, the Eiffel Tower is more than a romantic backdrop. It’s a survivor, a scientific marvel, and perhaps, if you believe the theories, a silent keeper of secrets still humming above the City of Love.