Avenue d’léna, Champs de Mars, Paris, France, then and now
The Eiffel Tower started as a monument centerpiece for the 1889 Paris World’s Fair. When the fair returned to Paris in 1900, it again featured the Eiffel Tower as its centerpiece, but for the first and only time, fair planners coated it with a yellow-gold paint. Fifty million visitors descended on the fairgrounds to see what the 83,000 exhibitors had to show them. There is a conspicuous addition to the scene, though. A Ferris Wheel is visible to the left of the Eiffel Tower in the 1900 image. The Ferris Wheel was a way to “Out-Eiffel Eiffel” at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, Illinois. It proved so popular it became a Midway staple at fairs all over the world, including the 1900 Paris Exhibition. By 2016, the Paris Exhibition was a memory, but the tree-lined street lined with historic architecture stays, as does the Eiffel Tower.