Paris plans security lift for Eiffel Tower

Upgrades reflect fear the landmark is a terrorism target.

PARIS — The iron lady, as the French affectionately call the Eiffel Tower, is getting a security upgrade.

Paris officials said on Thursday that the city planned to make the landmark safer by extending the security perimeter at its base to include two small public gardens on its eastern and western sides, and by building walls on the northern and southern edges.

As a major tourist destination that has endured several deadly terrorist attacks in recent years, Paris wants to ensure that the millions of visitors who come here every year feel not only welcome but also safe as they tour the city’s crowded attractions. After the project was announced, local authorities rushed to ease worries that the tower would soon become a “bunker.”

The newspaper Le Parisien, which first reported the project, said Thursday that the head of the company that manages the Eiffel Tower had told city councilors the plan was to build a “bulletproof fence” made of glass. The height of that fence, according to the newspaper, would be about 8 feet.

Several city councilors told the newspaper they worried about the tower becoming a “fortress,” and one of them, Yves Pozzo di Borgo, later posted on Twitter: “The Eiffel Tower, new bunker.”

But Jean-Francois Martins, the deputy mayor in charge of tourism, said the city was only tweaking existing security measures, and that it was too early to say what the enclosure would be made of.

“It could be glass, it could also be wrought iron,” he said, adding that the walls would not block views of the tower, which was built for the 1889 World’s Fair and attracts 6 million tourists every year.

Security checks would be moved to the garden entrances on each side, but visitors would still be able to reach the tower’s base for free, he said.

French authorities say the Eiffel Tower, arguably the capital’s most iconic landmark, is a major target for terrorist attacks. After the November 2015 attacks in and around Paris that killed 130 people, officials closed the tower for two days.

During the European soccer tournament last year, the city buffed up security around the Eiffel Tower.

The city said the enclosure was part of a wider set of renovations at the Eiffel Tower that will cost $320 million across 15 years. They include a paint job, elevator renovations and the replacement of thousands of flashing bulbs that make the tower sparkle every hour on the hour.

KAMIL ZIHNIOGLU / AP 2016 French riot police patrol under the Eiffel Tower during the Euro 2016 soccer tournament in June. Officials said Thursday that the city plans to extend the security perimeter at its base to include two small public gardens and walls.