Now it may seem like a giant tourist attraction, but when work on the Eiffel Tower finished in 1889, it was a marvel of modern engineering.

At 984 feet, nothing even remotely that high had ever been built -- it stood twice as tall as the Great Pyramid of Giza. Its curved design and iron lattice work were not just for aesthetics -- they were revolutionary at the time and ushered in the modern skyscraper era.

There's a bit of Gustave Eiffel in the States too -- he designed the iron framework inside the Statue of Liberty.