UPDATE: Google's Eiffel doodle bug

THE Eiffel Tower takes pride of place on Google’s front page today as the internet giant marks the Iron Lady’s 126th birthday.

Florian Marchix’s drawing shows painters working inside the complex gridwork on the Paris tower, which was inaugurated on March 31, 1889.

Built as the main showpiece and entrance for that year's World's Fair it is visited by seven million paying customers a year – making it the world’s most visited ticketed monument with 250 million visitors since it opened.

For 41 years it was the world’s tallest man-made structure until 1930, when it was beaten by New York’s Chrysler Building. The tower shrinks about six inches in winter.

However, although Google marked the tower’s birthday on the internet the Eiffel Tower website was down for maintenance – after it crashed this morning due to the number of visitors trying to access it after seeing the doodle.

The doodle bug overwhelmed the server with unexpected traffic - the SNTE management company said it had expected the doodle only in France but it was used worldwide instead. It is not yet known how many people tried to access the Eiffel Tower website.

"Down for maintenance" early this morning, the www.toureiffel.paris site managed this afternoon to upload a list of operating websites for tickets etc and then to get back online by around 16.00.

See more odd facts on the Eiffel Tower in our previous story last year when the tower's first floor reopened - with a glass floor