Google Brings Street View, Archival Images And Photos To The Eiffel Tower

Google today introduced 360-degree Street View imagery of all of the main floors of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. A few weeks ago, Google introduced Street View imagery for the world’s largest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, so adding this kind of imagery isn’t exactly new anymore. What’s different this time around, however, is that the Google Cultural Institute — in cooperation with the Eiffel Tower Operating Company — used this Street View imagery to create a number of online exhibitions about the tower.

These exhibitions feature over 50 archival images, plans, engravings and photos that, says Google, tell “the story of the Eiffel Tower’s development and social impact in the 19th century.” One of the highlights of this collection is a recording of Gustave Eiffel’s voice by Thomas Edison.

Sadly, it looks like Google only got a chance to take its Street View Trolley up the Eiffel Tower on a somewhat cloudy day, so the overall view isn’t quite as spectacular as it could have been.

Over the last few months, Google has been expanding Street View’s reach into a number of new locations ranging from underwater photography around the Great Barrier Reef to the Grand Canyon and numerous zoos, canals, abandoned islands and ski slopes around the world. Just last month, Google added close to 1,000 new Street View locations in Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America to its maps.