Venetian red?
Did you know that Gustave Eiffel originally painted this tower red?
Over the years, the tower has changed colors several times ranging from red-browns to mustard-browns and now to what some have called "milk chocolate" brown. The official color is "bronze." It is on its 19th painting, all by hand, which takes 60 tons of paint, 1500 paint brushes and an army of experienced acrobatic painters without a fear of heights!
The tower is actually painted three shades of the same color with the darkest at the bottom and the lightest hue at the top. Twenty-five painters strip, clean, rust-proof, and apply paint to all 250,000 square meters of the tower taking about a year to accomplish. The paint cannot be applied if it is too cold or if the tower is wet so the whole process from beginning to end may take 18 months.
Oh, and do not forget the 50 kilometers of security cords
and 5 acres of protective netting!
(Although I am a bit of a risk-taker,
I was not hanging from security cords for this shot)
La Tour Eiffel
75007, Paris
