(Paris) A little closer to the stars: the Eiffel Tower now culminates at 330 meters after the installation on Tuesday at its top of a 6-meter high helicopter-powered radio antenna.
Posted at 9:56 a.m.
A few onlookers and tourists braved the rainy weather, which postponed the operation for about 3 hours to see the famous Parisian monument, one of the most visited in the world, embellished with a new antenna that will allow the whole of Île-de-France to be covered by digital terrestrial radio (DAB+).
The operation, which required the agreement of the town hall of Paris, the Ministry of Culture and the police headquarters, lasted about fifteen minutes, the time for the helicopter to drop the antenna at the top where a technician was waiting to fix it.
This is the first time that new equipment has been installed by helicopter on the Eiffel Tower, according to Sete (Eiffel Tower operating company).
PHOTO FRANCOIS MORI, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The operation, which required the agreement of the town hall of Paris, the Ministry of Culture and the police headquarters, lasted about fifteen minutes, the time for the helicopter to drop the antenna at the top where a technician was waiting to fix it.
Prepared “for more than a year”, the operation cost around one million euros and the antenna, designed by TDF engineers, weighs 350 kg, according to the general secretary of the broadcasting operator, Arnaud Lucaussy .
“It is a source of great pride, a historic moment, rare in the history of the Eiffel Tower. It thus reconnects with its history, that of a place of technological and scientific experimentation, ”said Jean-François Martins, the president of Sete, to the press.
According to him, the “Iron Lady”, designed by the architect Gustave Eiffel for the Universal Exhibition of 1889, was to be dismantled twenty years later, but was “saved” by its function as a radio transmitter, d primarily for military purposes.
The previous antenna had been placed on its top in 2000, to allow the broadcasting of DTT (digital terrestrial television).