Gustave Eiffel - an Inspirational Engineer

Alexandre Gustave Eiffel is well known for various architectural designs of his such as bridges for the French railway network the most famous one being the Garabit viaduct. Though he is worldly known for the Eiffel Tower in Paris and taught in American history to aid in building the Statue of Liberty in which it was a gift for America.

To begin with, I chose Gustave Eiffel as an engineer to write on as I have an interest in history whether it be French history, US history, or even World history. I have also had an interest in visiting Paris one day as I believe that it is extremely beautiful there and I would like to compare the culture in France to ours in the United States. Lastly, Gustave Eiffel and I share the same birthday of December 15th. Though he was born 168 years before me.

As a matter of fact, Gustave Eiffel had an interest in construction from a young age in which he would later attend École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures or the College of Art and Manufacturing. He then graduated in 1855 at the age of 23, specializing in the construction of metal, more specifically bridges. He then continued his career as an engineer building structures that only became stronger and lighter as time went on.

Importantly, Eiffel labeled himself a “constructor” in 1864 after he spent several years in France supervising work for the great railway bridge. This would later lead him to over hundreds of metal structures, but there were other astonishing assignments such as the Porto viaduct in 1876, Garabit viaduct in 1884, the dome part of the Nice observatory, the astounding Statue of Liberty, and finally the Pest railway station located in Hungary. Also, 1889 is the year that he ended his career with a boom as his final structure would be the Eiffel Tower. Eiffel was a great engineer; you do not even have to read his full biography to be able to know that engineering and constructing was a great passion of his. This comes to show how great he was in the engineering world aside from him being well known amongst the world.

On the other hand, I feel as if I relate to Gustave Eiffel because from a young age, I also had an interest in engineering. Though in my case, I am still deciding on which path of engineering I really want to take. All I know is that I am passionate about it in a general perspective, but looking in depth, I am struggling on deciding which career path to take part in. In Eiffel’s case, not only was he an engineer, he was an entrepreneur as well. Furthermore, it is without a doubt that Eiffel enjoyed his time as an engineer, there could have also been times of stress, but you get what you sign up for and I know that being an engineer is not easy or a simple task.

As I aspire to be as great an engineer that Gustave Eiffel there are decisions that I must make to reach that goal or to become an engineer first. I must do well in school and try my absolute hardest, knowing that there will be tough times, I must push through them. I should also take classes that will allow me to learn whatever it is that engineers know how to do and what to do in their future career and endeavors. Finally, I must be able to think like an engineer, because if I cannot, then there would be no point in pursuing that field in which I am interested in.

All in all, I believe that Gustave Eiffel was an outstanding entrepreneur and engineer, he was passionate about constructing and engineering. His projects were astounding, and he is inevitably someone that every engineer should know of because of his accomplishments that also affect others. For instance, the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower are two monuments that are worth seeing in a person’s lifetime despite the distance between the two. It is without a doubt that Alexandre Gustave Eiffel was a great engineer throughout engineering history.