---
title: "Which came first, the Eiffel Tower or the telephone?"
description: "the Eiffel Tower vs the telephone: the telephone came first, by 13 years — 1876 against 1889. What happened in each case."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/eiffel-tower-vs-telephone/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, the Eiffel Tower or the telephone?

**Which came first, the Eiffel Tower or the telephone?: the telephone**

1876 — 13 years before the Eiffel Tower

the telephone came first, by 13 years. Bell was granted US patent 174,465.

## Side by side

|  | the Eiffel Tower | the telephone |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1889 | 1876 |
| Date | 1889-03-31 | 1876-03-07 |
| Category | landmark | invention |
| What happened | The tower opened for the Paris Exposition Universelle. | Bell was granted US patent 174,465. |

## 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 telephone

Bell's patent was granted on 7 March 1876 and he made the famous call to Watson three days later. Elisha Gray filed a caveat for a similar device on the same day in February that Bell filed his application, and the priority dispute has never entirely gone away. Antonio Meucci had demonstrated a working voice telegraph in New York in 1860 but could not afford to renew his caveat.

## Common questions

### Which came first, the Eiffel Tower or the telephone?

the telephone, by 13 years — 1876 against 1889.

### When did the Eiffel Tower start?

1889. The tower opened for the Paris Exposition Universelle.

### When did the telephone start?

1876. Bell was granted US patent 174,465.

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## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]
- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History — Smithsonian Institution (https://naturalhistory.si.edu/)