Yes, I agree! Eiffel was an excellent designer and the perfect choise for a project so large. However it was not accepted by all at first, and a petition of 300 names -- including those of Maupassant, Emile Zola, Charles Garnier who was an architect of the Opera Garnier, and Dumas the Younger -- protested its construction. But why? Didn't they think he was good enough? Oh, I think they all thought he was a good architect but they saw the tower as "useless and monstrous". I think the construction of the Eiffel Tower is important for all French people. Also, during its lifetime, the Eiffel Tower has also witnessed a few strange scenes, including being scaled by a mountaineer in 1954, and parachuted off in 1984 by two Englishmen. Oh yes, and I read that in 1923 a journalist rode a bicycle down from the first level. Some accounts say he rode down the stairs, other accounts suggest the exterior of one of the tower's four legs which slope outward. Well, whatever he did, he must have been crazy! Anyway, the Eiffel Tower doesn't have a really long history, but it's an interesting one.