Built between the years of 1887-1889, the tower was almost taken down more than just a few times, most notably by Hitler in the 1940s. Famed writer Guy de Maupassant ate lunch at the base of the Eiffel Tower almost every day. His reason for eating at that exact spot? He hated the Eiffel Tower and that was the only place in the whole of the city where he couldn’t see the tower.