OPEN THE TOWN TO THE ARMY

"...THESE GRAND STRATEGIC ARTERIES WILL PUSH BACK THE WORKERS AND ALSO HELP CONTAIN THEM..."

-- The Baron Haussmann,

 cited in The Atlas of Haussmannien Paris by Pierre Pinon, 2002, p. 93 (slightly abbreviated, in French)

The Empereur appoints Haussmann (upper part of a painting at the City Museum)

The metamorphosis continues until at least 1925... 

Piercing the boulevard Haussmann in 1925 / zoom

...but most is done during the years that follow the insurrection of June 1848.

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The artery that cuts through the city lets troops rushed from the frontiers...

The Eastern Station. The Northern Station is a few steps away.  

...march without obstacles to the center... 

Adapted from a Google map

...by eliminating streets like this:

          Rue du Chat qui pêche, 5th (between Notre-Dame and Saint-Michel)

Destruction covered the entire territory east of rue Saint-Denis, where the barricades of June had been...

 Adapted from a document at the National Library / zoom

That explains why Parisian railway stations are on the outskirts, in contrast to London and New York.* 

*Exceptions: the Northern and Eastern stations, which predate the June insurrection, and the former Gare d'Orsay, built in built in 1898 when strikes had replaced revolts.

By replacing craftspeople and a growing proletariat by a docile middle class, the government controlled the center: 

"In that way the workers were pushed back toward the outskirts; and as one easily understands, that change influenced in a positive way order and public safety." 

-- Général Moltke visiting Paris, in Atlas du Paris haussmannien, p. 93

# # #

Those demolitions explain...

• The rarity of medieval remains. 

• The dreariness of much of the center.  

     Crossroads at Etienne Marcel, at the right bank's heart and insurrections' epicenter. 

• And the harmony due to demolishing and rebuilding in a homogeneous style... 

 1 Boulevard Poissonnière, 9th, Internet, photographer not named

...that took off from the streets of the barricades.  

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Next,

A military network crisscrosses town