Center Opens at Eiffel Tower

Can you picture the Eiffel Tower in pink? How about plaid? Thanks to a new exhibit at the Paris landmark, visitors can now “paint” it any color they wish using interactive video screens.

The electronic palette is one of several displays in the new visitor center that opened week before last in the French capital. Another is an animated display of one of the engineering feats involved in building the tower, which shows how hydraulic jacks were used to crank up thousands of tons of iron just a bit to ensure that the tower’s platforms would be perfectly level.

There also is a high-tech monitoring system--called the Summit Movements Observatory (pictured right)--that demonstrates, among other things, that even on the the hottest, windiest days, Gustave Eiffel’s tower never bends by more than six inches. (For years, according to wire reports, some mischievous Parisians have teased tourists by propagating the myth that the tower sways by as much as 30 feet in certain climatic conditions.)

The new observatory is part of a wider project to lure visitors back to the 1,043-foot “Iron Lady” of Paris, now undergoing her 18th renovation in 106 years. About 5 million people visit the tower every year, but officials say that the number of tourists has dropped markedly during the last two years.

The New Society for Operating the Eiffel Tower (SNETE) has outlined a six-year plan for an extended underground complex under the building, including a cinema, sandwich bar and check-point for bags and other items.

The last initiative will come as a relief to anyone who has hauled their shopping up the tower.