---
title: "Which came first, the Eiffel Tower or the Ford Motor Company?"
description: "the Eiffel Tower vs the Ford Motor Company: the Eiffel Tower came first, by 14 years — 1889 against 1903. What happened in each case."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/eiffel-tower-vs-ford/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, the Eiffel Tower or the Ford Motor Company?

**Which came first, the Eiffel Tower or the Ford Motor Company?: the Eiffel Tower**

1889 — 14 years before the Ford Motor Company

the Eiffel Tower came first, by 14 years. The tower opened for the Paris Exposition Universelle.

## Side by side

|  | the Eiffel Tower | the Ford Motor Company |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1889 | 1903 |
| Date | 1889-03-31 | 1903-06-16 |
| Category | landmark | company |
| What happened | The tower opened for the Paris Exposition Universelle. | Ford Motor Company was incorporated in Detroit. |

## 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.

## the Ford Motor Company

Ford was incorporated in June 1903, fourteen years after Nintendo and six months before the Wright brothers flew. The Model T followed in 1908 and the moving assembly line in 1913, which cut the time to build a car from twelve hours to about ninety minutes. Ford was Henry Ford's third attempt at a car company; the first two failed.

## Common questions

### Which came first, the Eiffel Tower or the Ford Motor Company?

the Eiffel Tower, by 14 years — 1889 against 1903.

### When did the Eiffel Tower start?

1889. The tower opened for the Paris Exposition Universelle.

### When did the Ford Motor Company start?

1903. Ford Motor Company was incorporated in Detroit.

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## Sources

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