With the French, it always seems that you can never really tell what they mean. One may think that they just added a 125th floor to the Eiffel Tower just because they felt like it-because why not? But really, what’s with all the hype?

In France’s capital, Paris, the romantic stakes are only getting higher and higher: the 125 years-old tourist attraction just keeps getting bigger and bigger–the Eiffel Tower, that is.But all they’re really doing is changing the floor to the building.

Before we reveal the reason for this latest change, let’s take a jog down memory lane. In March of 1889, the building towered over Central Paris from 10,000 feet up and held the distinction that it was the tallest structure in the world—until the US did what America seems to do best. Beat the French. And beat them badly. That’s right, the Chrysler Building seemed to mitigate  some of the initial pain of the Great Depression for a short while when it toppled the French competition.

From there, the most notable intermediate change to alter the tower from the way that Eiffel, the main architect, envisioned it, was the addition of an antenna in 1957. This added an estimated 65 feet–no small feat.

So, back to 2014. They’re adding a new glass 1st floor to pay homage to the attraction’s beginnings, something even the most stubborn architect critic can appreciate.