The addition of a piece of modern technology has seen the 133-year-old Eiffel Tower grow in height for the fourth time in its history.
A helicopter carrying a 19.7-feet (6-meter) radio antenna recently flew to the top of the tower where waiting engineers attached it to the top of the famous Paris monument.
Reuters shared a video (below) on Twitter showing the work taking place …
WATCH: The Eiffel Tower grew 6 meters after a helicopter installed a digital radio antenna at the top of France’s most iconic landmark https://t.co/JhYYV4aYUj pic.twitter.com/MiTAkJ19nC
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 21, 2022
The addition of the new radio antenna means the Eiffel Tower now stands at 1,083 feet (330 meters) from the ground to its tip, cementing its position as France’s eighth-tallest structure.
The new antenna will be used to transmit digital radio throughout the French capital, according to France24.
Commenting on the new addition to the Eiffel Tower, Jean-Francois Martins, the head of the tower’s operating company, said, “It’s a moment of great pride,” adding that the iconic structure is “returning to her roots as a place of technological and scientific experimentation.”
The Eiffel Tower was designed and built by the engineer Gustave Eiffel. Upon its completion, the tower stood at 1,024.6 feet (312.3 meters), making it the first structure with a height greater than 300 meters.
It was only supposed to stay in place for 20 years, built as it was for the Exposition Universelle, an event celebrating the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution.
However, Eiffel managed to extend the monument’s life by making it more useful, adding weather-monitoring apparatus and getting astronomers to use it for their work. Fitting it with radio-emitting equipment for the first time in 1957 firmly established its right to remain.
The last time the Eiffel Tower increased in height was in 2000 when the addition of another radio antenna saw it grow from 1,045.6 feet (318.7 meters) to 1,063 feet (324 meters).
With more than 250 million people having visited the site since the day it opened — many making their way to its highest observation deck 906 feet (276 meters) up — the Eiffel Tower is now classified as the world’s most visited monument.
Despite being one of the tallest structures in France, the Eiffel Tower is way shorter than the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which stands at 2,722 feet (829.8 meters).
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