In 1887, the Eiffel Tower was still an argument in iron.
Guy de Maupassant and architect Charles Garnier signed a protest in Le Temps: the exposed frame, they warned, would scar the beauty of Paris.
Construction rolled on for the 1889 Exposition. The permit ran only 20 years — then science and radio made the tower too useful to lose.
The petition is a footnote now, because the scar became the skyline.