The Eiffel Tower’s Secret Connection to Taiwan
The Eiffel Tower is a marvel of modern architecture. Gustave Eiffel pioneered this innovative design in the same manner as the riveted kit bridges he popularized across France, Europe, and Asia. Modular, triangular structures were manufactured in factories with rivets, before being exported, and then assembled on-site by local labor. This lucrative enterprise proved to be the fastest and most efficient method to build portable bridges from the late 1800s up until the early 1950s. And yet, few people realize that these prefabricated components played an unexpected yet significant role in the construction of Taiwan’s Cross-Island Highway. The Cross-Island Highway connects the east and west coasts of Taiwan, spanning 190 kilometers westward from Taroko, and passes through Dayuling at 2,565 meters above sea level, before branching out at its highest point of 3,275 meters above sea level in Wuling. These pathways have connected communities across Taiwan for generations, originating with the ancestral hunting trails of the Indigenous Taroko people. In 1910, the Japanese colonial government began a campaign to pacify Indigenous peoples living in eastern Taiwan. This system of police stations and surveillance roads was later converted into Taiwan’s first modern transportation network, The Hehuan Pass, which opened in 1935. These roadways persisted until the 1950s when the Korean War and escalating conflicts in Vietnam pushed the Nationalist government to strengthen their defenses. Six of Eiffel’s railroad bridges inscribed with the words, “BRIDGE FOR VIETNAM-TYPE CONVOY”, were re-routed from their original destination in Vietnam to Taiwan as part of the U.S. Aid Plan for Military Roads, a larger military infrastructure plan to contain Communism in the Asia Pacific Region. While initially intended for the railway, these unmistakable red bridges are now part of the highway serving visitors at Taroko National Park to this day.
