Gustave Eiffel

Alexandre Gustave Eiffel was a French civil engineer and architect. A graduate of the prestigious cole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures of France, he made his name with various bridges for the French railway network, most famously the Garabit viaduct. He is best known for the worldfamous Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris, and his contribution to building the Statue of Liberty in New York. After his retirement from engineering, Eiffel focused on research into meteorology and aerodynamics, and making significant contributions in both fields.

Gustave Eiffel was born in France, in the CtedOr, the first child of CatherineMlanie and Alexandre Bonickhausen dit Eiffel. He was a descendant of JeanRen Bnickhausen, who had emigrated from the German town of Marmagen and settled in Paris at the beginning of the 18th century. The family adopted the name Eiffel as a reference to the Eifel mountains in the region from which they had come. Although the family always used the name Eiffel, Gustaves name was registered at birth as Bonickhausen dit Eiffel, and was not formally changed to Eiffel until 1880.

Source: Wikipedia