Goodbye metal fencing. Hello glass walls. Paris authorities are building a permanent, transparent security belt around the Eiffel Tower. The visually appealing security glass walls will replace the current metal fencing around the famous tower.
The company operating France’s most-visited monument says see-through panels are being set up at the north and south ends of the site. Each panel is made from armored glass that is over six centimeters thick. Each measures nearly 10 feet high and weighs one and a half tons. In all, 450 glass panels will compose the two walls north and south of the monument. Bollards—sturdy, short poles—will be set up all around. These prevent vehicles from ramming the fences or entering restricted areas.
The glass walls will allow visitors to admire the views from the nearby Champ-de-Mars gardens to the other side of the Seine River that runs through Paris.
The renovation will also embellish the gardens beneath the tower. Altogether, it’s part of a 300 million euro ($350 million) project announced last year to modernize the 129-year-old landmark. The security renovation should be completed by September.
Jose Luis Fuentes, an architect with the firm that is in charge of the project, praised the new surround. He says the walls will be “absolutely not visible…. It will really look as if the square (under the Eiffel Tower) was open.”
Between six and seven million people visit the Eiffel Tower every year.
(AP Photo: Bernard Gaudillere, president of the Eiffel Tower Exploitation Society, stands in front of new bulletproof security glass. It will soon replace the metal fencing surrounding the famous Paris landmark.)
