The structure was built between 1887 and 1889 as the entrance arch for the Exposition Universelle,
a World's Fair marking the centennial celebration of the French Revolution.
Three hundred workers joined together 18,038 pieces of puddled iron (a very pure form of structural iron), using two and a half million rivets, in a structural design by Maurice Koechlin. Eiffel was assisted in the design by engineers Émile Nouguier and Maurice Koechlin and architect Stephen Sauvestre.