How does the Eiffel Tower survive high winds?
The Eiffel Tower's open lattice design allows 99% of wind to pass through it, keeping the structure stable.
Gustave Eiffel used his experience as a bridge builder to design a tower that resists wind pressure. The curved iron beams form a grid with large gaps, allowing air to flow through rather than pushing against it. Even during 150 km/h storms, the top of the tower only sways about 12 centimeters. The design is so efficient that the iron structure actually weighs less than the cylinder of air surrounding it.
Nerd Mode
When the Eiffel Tower was completed for the 1889 World's Fair, it was the tallest man-made structure in the world. Gustave Eiffel and his engineers, Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier, specifically calculated the tower's curvature to counteract wind resistance. They used a mathematical approach where the curvature of the uprights is determined by the wind pressure at different heights.The tower is composed of 18,038 metallic parts joined by 2.5 million rivets. This lattice structure is incredibly lightweight, weighing approximately 7,300 tons. If you were to melt down the iron and spread it across the tower's base, the layer would be only 6 centimeters thick. This highlights how much of the tower's volume is actually empty space.The maximum sway ever recorded occurred during a storm in 1999, where wind speeds reached 240 km/h and the tower moved approximately 13 centimeters. Thermal expansion actually causes more movement than the wind. On a hot day, the sun causes the iron to expand, which can make the top of the tower tilt up to 18 centimeters away from the sun.
Verified Fact
FP-0009380 · Feb 22, 2026