Gustave (Alexandre) Eiffel

This French civil en­gi­neer and con­struc­tor, is fa­mous for the Eif­fel Tower in Paris. He stu­died at the É­cole Cen­tral des Arts et Ma­nu­fac­tu­res, where he de­mons­tra­ted his in­te­rest in metal con­struc­tion, gra­dua­ted in Che­mi­cal En­gi­nee­ring and in 1866 foun­ded his own com­pany. He di­rec­ted the buil­ding of an iron rail­way bridge at Bor­deaux and the de­sign of the mova­ble dome of the ob­ser­va­tory at Nice. He fi­nis­hed his grea­test project, the Eif­fel Tower, in 1889, in time for the Cen­ten­nial Ex­po­si­tion, cau­sing com­mo­tion and ama­ze­ment among the ar­tists of the pe­riod and the world in ge­ne­ral. His next large-scale project was the Pa­nama Canal.