Paris's iconic Eiffel Tower has to be entirely repainted by hand every seven years using sixty tons of specially formulated brown paint to prevent the massive iron structure from rusting into a giant pile of scrap metal.

A closer look

Paris's iconic Eiffel Tower has to be entirely repainted by hand every seven years using sixty tons of specially formulated brown paint to prevent the massive iron structure from rusting into a giant pile of scrap metal. There is an entire crew of acrobatic painters who risk their lives dangling hundreds of feet above the city with nothing but a bucket and a brush, performing a Sisyphean task that takes months to complete. By the time they finish painting the bottom, the top is probably starting to corrode again, meaning the most iconic symbol of French romance is essentially just a giant, never-ending home maintenance nightmare that requires constant manual labor to survive!