The French Mint celebrates the 120th Anniversary of the inauguration of the Eiffel Tower with this 2009 commemorative 10 euro silver proof coin with a hollowed-out design in the shape of the Eiffel Tower.
Gustave Eiffel (1832 - 1923) was a gifted engineer and builder. He graduated from the prestigious Ecole Centrale de Paris. His extraordinary career was marked in 1876 by the construction of the Maria Pia bridge over the River Douro in Portugal, then by that of the Garabit Viaduct in central France in 1884 and Budapest station in Hungary. He was responsible for the metal structures of the Bon Marché department store and the Crédit Lyonnais bank in Paris, the cupola of the Nice observatory, and, above all, the very impressive internal structure of the Statue of Liberty. The construction of the Eiffel Tower in 1889 was his crowning achievement.
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