Today the Eiffel Tower turns 120. Paris’s iconic Eiffel Tower will celebrate its 120th birthday and, as a present, will receive a brand-new coat of paint.

The job will take over a year and will involve the labor of 25 painters applying over sixty tons of paint at a cost of 170 million euros.

This won’t be the first makeover. Designed by Gustave Eiffel and built for the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1889 to commemorate the centenary of the French Revolution, the tower has had seventeen cosmetic updates since its birth, changing color several times, from brown-red to yellow to bronze.

Quoted in France’s daily Le Figaro, one of the painters chosen for the project spoke of his love for the job. “Once you’re up there, you forget the ground, your worries, the dangers, everything stays behind,” said Aderito Dos Santos Baptista.

There have never been any fatalities from the painting of the Eiffel Tower although there have been some injuries.

The first-floor restaurant, renamed ’58 Tour Eiffel’, will also be inaugurated after a complete make-over.

At 300 meters tall (324 meters with antennae) and weighing 7,000 tons, the Eiffel Tower was the world’s tallest building until 1930. There are 1665 steps to the top. One of the most visited sites in the world, the tower can boast a new record with nearly seven million visitors in 2008. Come visit the Eiffel Tower to say Happy Birthday.

If the Eiffel Tower was controversial at the time of its inception, it is now completely accepted and is one of several symbols of Paris’s beauty. Much like IM Pei’s pyramid entrance the Louvre, the French resisted the change, but now most agree upon its merits.

Happy Birthday Eiffel Tower.

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