Ti racconto la Storia - volume 3

VERSO L ESAME FRANCESE Un symbole de la Belle époque: la Tour Eiffel La Tour Eiffel a été construite à l occasion de l Exposition Universelle de 1889. Située sur le Champ de Mars, elle tient son nom de l ingénieur Gustave Eiffel. Entièrement construite en fer, elle mesure 320 m de haut (elle mesure au jourd hui 324 m avec les antennes) et pèse environ 10 000 tonnes. Sa construc tion a duré deux ans, deux mois et cinq jours. La Tour Eiffel était également importante pour les antennes de transmission nécessaires à la nouvelle science de la radiotélégraphie. Elle se compose de quatre pyl nes réticulaires, avec une courbure particulière qui sert à contrer la force du vent. Initialement, elle n aurait d rester debout que vingt ans, mais lorsqu une antenne très utile pour les émissions de radio en temps de guerre a été placée au sommet, on a décidé de ne pas la détruire et c est aujourd hui l un des monuments les plus visités au monde. UN PASSO IN PI Per arricchire e differenziare il tuo percorso: puoi cercare informazioni su altri luoghi simbolo della Belle époque, come il quartiere di Montmartre, dove vivevano gli artisti dell epoca, o il Moulin Rouge, dove si svolgevano spettacoli di cabaret e si esibivano le ballerine di can can. INGLESE The tragedy of the Titanic L affondamento del transatlantico Titanic in un illustrazione del tempo (1912). The Belle époque was also characterized by new experiences such as the great transatlantic crossings. The Titanic and her sister ships Olympic and Gigantic were designed in those years to show the world the superiority of the British Empire in navigating the seas and the supremacy of man over nature, but the sinking of the Titanic, that everyone judged unsinkable, demonstrated that feel ing invincible didn t mean being truly invincible. On April 10, 1912, the Titanic set sail from Southampton for her maiden voy age to New York. The captain, Edward Smith, had led the Olympic on the same route for a year. More than 2,400 people were travelling on board. On April 14 at midnight the ocean liner collided with an iceberg causing some leaks below the waterline. The first 5 watertight compartments of the ocean liner flooded immediately and 2 hours and 40 minutes later the Titanic sank into the Atlantic Ocean, breaking in two sections. In the shipwreck, passengers and men of the crew lost their lives: only 705 people were saved. On board there was a tele graph from which a request for help was launched, that made it possible to save numerous human lives. The ocean liner, which was considered the symbol of progress in transport achieved by man, became instead the emblem of the end of the Belle époque. 472 UN PASSO IN PI Per arricchire e differenziare il tuo percorso: puoi cercare informazioni su altri nau fragi famosi avvenuti in epoche suc cessive, come quello del transatlantico italiano Andrea Doria, avvenuto tra il 25 e il 26 luglio 1956 mentre era in viaggio verso New York.