---
title: "Which came first, Big Ben or the Eiffel Tower?"
description: "Big Ben vs the Eiffel Tower: Big Ben came first, by 30 years — 1859 against 1889. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/big-ben-vs-eiffel-tower/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, Big Ben or the Eiffel Tower?

**Which came first, Big Ben or the Eiffel Tower?: Big Ben**

1859 — 30 years before the Eiffel Tower

Big Ben came first, by 30 years. The great bell rang for the first time.

## Side by side

|  | Big Ben | the Eiffel Tower |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1859 | 1889 |
| Date | 1859-07-11 | 1889-03-31 |
| Category | landmark | landmark |
| What happened | The great bell rang for the first time. | The tower opened for the Paris Exposition Universelle. |

## Big Ben

Big Ben is the bell, not the tower and not the clock. It first rang in July 1859, cracked within two months, and has rung with that crack ever since — which is why it has its particular sound. The tower was called the Clock Tower until 2012, when it was renamed Elizabeth Tower for the Diamond Jubilee.

## the Eiffel Tower

Built for the 1889 World's Fair and intended to be dismantled after twenty years, the Eiffel Tower survived because it turned out to be useful as a radio antenna. It was the tallest structure in the world until the Chrysler Building in 1930. It opened in the same year Nintendo was founded, and two and a half years after the Statue of Liberty it is often assumed to predate.

## Common questions

### Which came first, Big Ben or the Eiffel Tower?

Big Ben, by 30 years — 1859 against 1889.

### When did Big Ben start?

1859. The great bell rang for the first time.

### When did the Eiffel Tower start?

1889. The tower opened for the Paris Exposition Universelle.

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## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]