Imagination run amuck.
Built as the centerpiece of the great Paris Exposition of 1889, it was touted as an engineering marvel and a platform for scientific work in air resistance and atmospheric research. Although it was used as such, mostly it served as an advertisement for French genius and national glory. This being the nineteenth century, the great age of national honor, the gauntlet thrown down by France was quickly picked up by England. Within a year there was a proposal that London should build a tower of its own-taller than the one in Paris. This being Britain.