How many rivets hold the Eiffel Tower together?

Approximately 2.5 million rivets hold the Eiffel Tower together. They join the tower’s thousands of prefabricated iron components into a single, flexible lattice structure.

Construction took place from 1887 to 1889 for the Exposition Universelle. The tower contains about 18,038 iron parts, which were prepared with extraordinary precision before being assembled on site. Riveting was a labor-intensive operation: a team typically heated the rivet, positioned it, held the work in place, and hammered the hot metal into its finished head.

As a rivet cooled, it contracted and pulled the connected plates tightly together. This method produced strong joints before modern welding and high-strength structural bolts became standard. The tower’s design also lets wind pass through its open framework, reducing pressure on the structure.

The number is an engineering estimate commonly given as 2.5 million, not a count visitors can verify visually. It is also sometimes confused with the tower’s 18,038 iron pieces; those are components, while the rivets are the fasteners joining them.