Google expands Street View to the Eiffel Tower

Google second Street View skyscraper, with exhibitions featuring archival photos and recordings

Last month, Google unveiled a street view of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which is, at At 2,717 feet and 160 floors, the tallest building in the world. It was the first time Google captured a building on Street View.

Now Google has expanded to its second building, the Eiffel Tower, it was announced Tuesday. And this time there is another twist: the Eiffel Tower Operating Company is teaming up with the Google Cultural Institute to provide three new exhibitions to highlight the history of the structure.

Like it did for the Burj Khalifa, Google is allowing people to tour the building, both from the inside and the outside, without ever having to ever visit it by offering a 360-degree panoramic of numerous indoor and outdoor locations of the building.

"Since its construction in 1889, more than 250 million people have visited Paris’ iconic Eiffel Tower. The highest monument in the world for more than 40 years (today that title is held by Burj Khalifa in Dubai), the Eiffel Tower remains the most visited monument globally," Mark Yoshitake, Head of Product & User Experience, Google Cultural Institute, wrote. 

"But not everyone has been or can hope to go—until now. If you’ve ever wondered what the view is like from above the City of Light or wanted to learn more about the Tower’s history, now’s your chance to find out."

To capture images of the building, Google used the Street View trolley, an image capturing device that was designed for monuments and museums. They were able to film 360-degree views of the monument’s architecture and its views over Paris.

What makes this endevour special, though, are the exhibitions being offered about the Eiffel Tower, thereby using Street View for educational purposed.

One of the exhibition shows the birth of the Eiffel Tower "from the initial idea until its realization." User will also be able to follow the construction of the Tower step-by-step through photos and sketches provided by google/

There is also an exhibit being offered on the inauguration and the first visitors, which "included photos of people admiring the Paris vista on the opening day leading into today’s Street View imagery from the top floor."

These exhibitions also feature over 50 archival images, plans, engravings and photos. One of the highlights of this collection is a recording of Gustave Eiffel’s voice that was taken by Thomas Edison

Google has been doing some pretty cool things with its Street View project lately.

On top of the new skyscraper views, Google also announced that it was starting a program that will allow third party organizations to take the Street View Trekker, which is a wearable backpack that is outfitted with a camera system on top to capture areas that vehicles can't go,

The program also revealed its first partner: the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau (HVCB), which has already started to use the Trekker to take photos of popular sites on the Hawaiian islands. Photos will be taken of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Mauna Loa Observatory, Onomea Bay, Akaka Falls, Waipio Valley, Pololu Valley and more. These photos will be then be included on Google Maps in the future.

Most recently, Google also used Street View to set up an interactive website to allow normal people to experience what is like to be in the Tour de France.

(Image source: https://www.google.com)