In a signal that France is still facing a threat of terror, Paris is planning to build a barrier around the Eiffel Tower.
Jean-Francois Martins, a city official, said the barrier, which will reportedly be a 2.5 meter-high bullet proof glass wall, will be “permanent” and aesthetic.
The city has made $21.3 million available to evaluate proposals, taking into account the aesthetics.
The Eiffel Tower has already seen barriers installed around it, but they have mostly been unsightly, temporary fences.
Installing a the permanent barrier is part of a larger $320 million modernization plan at the tower over the next 15 years.
“Sadly, the risk of terrorism hasn’t gone away,” Martins said.
The Parisian icon is visited by an estimated seven million people annually.
In 2015, 130 people were killed in a coordinated attack by Islamist terrorists at several locations throughout the city, including 89 at the Bataclan theater. Earlier that year, terrorists gunned down 12 staff members at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
