Talk:Eiffel Tower

Lead and body disagree on year Chrysler Building surpassed it (1929 vs 1930)

The lead and the body disagree on the year the Eiffel Tower was surpassed by the Chrysler Building. The lead says: "a title it held for 41 years until the Chrysler Building in New York City was finished in 1930." But a later paragraph reads: "The Eiffel Tower was the world's tallest structure when completed in 1889, a distinction it retained until 1929 when the Chrysler Building in New York City was topped out."

The two are not reconcilable as written: the "41 years" arithmetic in the lead (1889 + 41 = 1930) is internally consistent only with the 1930 date. Topping-out (October 23, 1929, when Chrysler's spire was raised) and architectural completion/opening (May 27, 1930) are different milestones, but the article should pick one and apply it consistently — either "until 1929 when the Chrysler Building was topped out" with a 40-year span, or "until 1930 when it was completed" with the 41 years already quoted. Rome (talk) 01:01, 5 May 2026 (UTC)

Rome's analysis is correct, and after checking, the inconsistency is actually across three places, not two: the lead says "finished in 1930," the "Taller structures" section says "1929 when the Chrysler Building was topped out," and the Height changes table also says "surpassed by the Chrysler Building in 1930."

Of the three, the "Taller structures" section's 1929 is historically the right choice. The Chrysler Building's distinctive art-deco spire was secretly assembled inside the building's fire shaft and raised on October 23, 1929 — that is the moment its pinnacle height exceeded the Eiffel Tower's 312 m. At that instant the record changed hands, regardless of when the building opened to tenants (May 27, 1930). For skyscraper records, "topped out" is the standard metric, not "opened" or "occupied."

Correcting to 1929 means the span in the lead should change from "41 years" to "40 years" (1889–1929). The Height changes table remark should also be updated to 1929. Taken together, these three fixes would make the article self-consistent on a factual point where it is currently 2-vs-1 in favour of the wrong year. KilyigBot2 (talk) 08:04, 5 May 2026 (UTC)

"Now taller than the Chrysler Building by 17 ft" is inconsistent with the stated 330 m height

The lead section contains two internally inconsistent current-state claims about the tower's height relative to the Chrysler Building.

Claim 1: "The tower is 330 m tall" (citing a March 2022 Reuters article about the 6-metre antenna addition).

Claim 2: "it is now taller than the Chrysler Building by 17 ft"

These two statements cannot both be true simultaneously. The Chrysler Building is 318.9 m (1,046 ft) tall.

• At the current stated height of 330 m: 330 − 318.9 = 11.1 m = 36.4 ft (not 17 ft)
• The "17 ft" figure: 17 ft = 5.18 m → Eiffel Tower height = 318.9 + 5.2 ≈ 324 m

This is consistent with the tower's height before the 2022 antenna addition brought it from 324 m to 330 m. The article's total height figure has been updated to 330 m but the comparison with the Chrysler Building (17 ft) has not been updated to reflect the additional 6 m added in 2022.

At the current height of 330 m, the tower is about 36 ft (11 m) taller than the Chrysler Building, not 17 ft.

KilyigBot3 (talk) 11:38, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

Dimensions table: architectural height note says "300 m (980 ft)" but 300 m = 984 ft, not 980 ft

In the "Dimensions – Height changes" table, the remark for the 1889–1956 row reads: "Architectural height of 300 m (980 ft)".

However, the correct conversion of 300 m to feet is:

300 m ÷ 0.3048 m/ft = 984.25 ft ≈ 984 ft

The value 980 ft corresponds to roughly 298.7 m, not 300 m. The discrepancy is about 4 feet (1.2 m).

This is internally inconsistent with the article's own infobox, which uses Template:Convert for the architectural height and renders it correctly as 984 ft. The remark in the table appears to have used a rounded or incorrect conversion and should be corrected to "300 m (984 ft)".

KilyigBot3 (talk) 12:43, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

Infobox and Dimensions table disagree on the architectural height in feet: 984 ft vs 980 ft

The article gives two different foot values for the same architectural height of 300 m in two locations:

• Infobox (Architectural row): "300 m (984 ft)"
• Dimensions section (Height changes table, 1889–1956 row): "Architectural height of 300 m (980 ft)"

The correct conversion is: 300 m ÷ 0.3048 = 984.25 ft ≈ 984 ft. The infobox is therefore correct, and the 980 ft figure in the height-changes table is a unit conversion error — it is off by 4 feet (approximately 1.2 m). The table entry should read "Architectural height of 300 m (984 ft)". KilyigBot3 (talk) 13:48, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

Height comparison with Chrysler Building internally inconsistent: 330 m vs 319 m is ~36 ft, not the stated 17 ft

The lead paragraph states two things:

1. "The tower is 330 m (1,083 ft) tall" (following the 2022 antenna upgrade).
2. "it is now taller than the Chrysler Building by 17 ft (5.2 m)."

If the Eiffel Tower stands at 330 m and the Chrysler Building is typically listed at 318.9 m (1,046 ft), the actual difference is approximately 11 m (~36 ft), not 5.2 m (17 ft).

The "17 ft" figure was accurate when the tower's height was 324 m (after the 1957 antenna addition): 324 − 318.9 ≈ 5.1 m ≈ 17 ft. However, the lead now gives the current height as 330 m following a 2022 antenna upgrade but retains the outdated 17 ft comparison, making the two statements internally inconsistent. KilyigBot3 (talk) 15:25, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

Nice catch, I've made the edit. MetalBreaksAndBends (talk) 15:59, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

Contradiction in stair step count: lead says 600 steps total, Inauguration section says 1,710 steps to the top

The lead section states: "The climb from ground level to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the climb from the first level to the second, making the entire ascent a 600-step climb."

However, the "Inauguration and the 1889 exposition" section states: "nearly 30,000 visitors made the 1,710-step climb to the top before the lifts entered service on 26 May."

Both passages claim to describe the total stair climb to the top of the tower, but give figures that are nearly three times apart: 600 steps versus 1,710 steps. These two numbers cannot both be correct; one of them must be in error. KilyigBot3 (talk) 06:30, 3 June 2026 (UTC)

Chrysler Building year: 1929 in "Taller structures" section contradicts 1930 given elsewhere

The article gives conflicting years for when the Chrysler Building surpassed the Eiffel Tower as the world's tallest structure.

The lead states: "the Chrysler Building in New York City was finished in 1930."

The "Subsequent events" section states: "In 1930, the tower lost the title of the world's tallest structure when the Chrysler Building in New York City was completed."

But the "Taller structures" section states: "The Eiffel Tower was the world's tallest structure when completed in 1889, a distinction it retained until 1929 when the Chrysler Building in New York City was topped out."

Two sections give 1930 while a third gives 1929. These are mutually inconsistent within the article. KilyigBot3 (talk) 06:30, 3 June 2026 (UTC)

Contradiction in 1957 antenna height increase: Communications section says 18.7 m but Dimensions table implies ~8.5 m

The Communications section (Analogue television subsection) states: "A television antenna was first installed on the tower in 1957, increasing its height by 18.7 m (61 ft)."

However, the Dimensions – Height changes table gives the following pinnacle heights:

• 1889–1956 (flagpole era): 312.27 m
• 1957–1991 (first broadcast antenna): 320.75 m

The difference between these two figures is 320.75 − 312.27 = 8.48 m, not 18.7 m. The two parts of the article therefore give mutually inconsistent values for what the 1957 antenna addition contributed to the tower's overall height.

For completeness: 300 m (architectural) + 18.7 m = 318.7 m, which matches the 1994–2000 table entry, not the 1957 entry. And 320.75 − 300 = 20.75 m, which is also inconsistent with 18.7 m. No arithmetic interpretation of the Communications section's "18.7 m" figure reconciles it with the 312.27 m → 320.75 m change shown in the Dimensions table. One of the two figures must be in error. KilyigBot3 (talk) 06:32, 3 June 2026 (UTC)