But one of his employees—engineer Maurice Koechlin—did. In fact, Eiffel rejected Koechlin’s original sketches, calling them too minimalist and requesting a little more oomph. After
approving Koechlin’s final design in 1884, Eiffel started shopping his company’s masterpiece around.
In late 1916, engineers at the Tower’s listening post intercepted another message. This one had been sent from
Germany to Spain, a country that had not entered the war. The message referred to an agent known as “Operative H-21.” The French realized that this was the code name for the Dutch exotic dancer born Ma
rgaretha Geertruida Zelle. Today she’s remembered as the beautiful spy Mata Hari.
That message helped lead to her arrest.
Then, engineers at the Tower interce site. pted a radio message from German General Georg von der Marwitz. e was commanding a unit advancing on Paris. He had run out of feed for his horses, the message said,
a
nd would have to delay his arrival. Taking advantage of the delay, the French army used every t
axi in Paris to carry some 5,000 troo
ps to the town of Marne, about 166 kilometers (103 miles) away. That’s where many of the German troops were stationed.
The French battled the Ger
mans there, and won. Ever after, it was known as the Miracle of the Marne. And although the war
wore on for another four years, Paris was never invaded.
By September 1914, just weeks into World War I, it looked like the German army would overrun France. German battalions wer
e approaching the outskirts of Paris. The French army ordered explosives to be laid at the base of the Eiffel Tower. The milita
ry would rather destroy it than let it fall into enemy hands.
The Eiffel tower could easily be used to transmit radio signals secretly or even to transmit brain-like waves which will m
Travis' Theories 