View of the Eiffel Tower - Expo Paris 1889

A very complete map is placed on the third platform. It was drawn up by Mr Eiffel by one of his collaborators, Mr Bourdon. We reproduce it at the end of this guide.

We have noted on this map, which is drawn at 5 millimetres per kilometre, the following localities:
To the north: The whole plain is visible up to twenty-five kilometres, then Ecouen, Villiers-le-Bel, Gonesse, the forest of Montmorency, the forest of Carnelle, a large part of the department of Oise, Neuilly-en-Tell, which is one of the summits, then beyond Clermont, Airion and Valescourt, two communes which are on the limits of the Oise and the Somme, seventy kilometres from Paris

To the north-east: The Hallate forest, behind Senlis, seventy-five kilometres from Paris. Nearer Villepinte, Le Tremblay, Danmartin, thirty-six kilometres; a little before Crépy-en-Valois at fifty kilometres, a long hill, and Mareuil-sur-l'Ourcq, then Villers-Cotterets, Plessis au Bois, and the heights behind the forest of Villers-Cotterets, eighty kilometres from Paris.

To the east: Peaks eighty-two kilometres away in the direction of Château-Thierry, a little to the north of this town, Sommelans, Grisolles in the department of Aisne, etc.; much nearer Neuilly-sur-Seine, in the department of Aisne, etc, etc.; much closer Neuilly-sur-Marne, Gournay, Claye, Villeparisis, Etrépilly, the church of Meaux; sixty kilometres away Lisy-sur-Ourcq, the hills of Ferté-sous-Jouarre; then seventy-two kilometres away the communes of Pierre-Levée, Lagny, Boutigny, Bois-Martin, etc.

To the south-east: Armainvilliers, Boissy-Saint-Léger, Fer-rières, Brie-Comte-Robert, Beauvoir, Rosay, the forests of
Crécy, Faremoutiers, Haute-Feuille-Malvoisine (54 kilos), the vicinity of Ferté-Gaucher at eighty-two kilos, the forest of Jouy at seventy-four kilometres, Mormant, Nangis, Villiers-Saint-Georges (80 kilos); then the forest of Sénart (80 kilos). ); then the forest of Sénart, Melun, le Châtelet (54 kilos), Dammarie, the forest of Fontainebleau up to Montereau (70 kilos), and finally, in front of Sens, a peak situated at eighty-eight kilometres, Champigny-le-Chapitre.

To the south: La Ferté-Alais and all its surroundings, Males-herbes, Étampes (52 kil.), up to sixty-two kilometres-Boissy-la-Rivière, Fontaine-la-Rivière, Marancourt, Mondé-sir, Pussay; and in front of Étampes, Chamarande, Mauchamp, Torfou, Chaufour, Brétigny, Arpajon.
To the south-west: the forest of Dourdan, Ponthévrard, the forest of Ouye, Les Granges-le-Roi; in front of Limours, Gometz-la-Ville, Gometz-le-Chàtel, Boulay, Cernay-la-Ville, Saint-Aubin, Belleville-Château; behind, the steeples of Vauvrigneuse, Sermaise, Saint-Chéron. Then, forty kilometres further west, the forest of Rambouillet, and behind Dourdan a point sixty-two kilometres away; finally, the cathedral of Chartres, and, behind Chartres, a peak eighty-three kilometres away.

To the west: the castle of Versailles and all the valley which leads to Versailles, the fort Saint-Cyr, Trappes, Neauphle-le-Chàteau, the Perray, the chapel of Dreux, and in the vicinity of Houdan, at fifty kilometres, Garancières and Richebourg.

To the north-west: Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Conflans, the côte des Alluets, Aigremont, Boinvilliers, the forest of Bizy, near the Seine in the vicinity of Les Andelys (69 kil. ), the forest of Merey further north, before Gisors, up to fifty-eight kilometres, the forest of Lyons up to ninety kilometres, Boschyon, Elbeuf-en-Bray, Montroty, and nearer, in front of Beauvais, a long coast which extends up to Lecoudray and Saint-Germer at sixty-nine kilometres.

The furthest point that has been recorded to date is a peak in the Lyons forest at ninety kilometres.

These are, understandably, calculations that give the maximum. In reality, the horizon is always more or less veiled by mists and clouds, and you have to bring down a lot of them to get into ordinary conditions.

However, after heavy showers, after a storm, with winds from the north and east, which will have swept the atmosphere, the view will extend much further than the distances given on the map drawn up by Mr. Eiffel, and according to the experiments of the Academy of Sciences, of Messrs. Gaston Tissandier, Max de Nansouty, Mascart, Flammarion, etc., the circle of visibility will approach two hundred kilometres.

© Guide Bleu du Figaro et du Petit Journal 1889