AN ARTERY LETS TROOPS RUSHED FROM THE FRONTIERS CUT THROUGH TOWN, WITHOUT SMALL STREETS' OBSTRUCTION
As well: "These grand strategic arteries will push back the workers [...] and also help contain them."
-- Baron Haussmann,
cited in The Atlas of Haussmannien Paris by Pierre Pinon, 2002, p. 93
The wide, straight street lets troops move quickly from the Eastern Station to the heart of town. The Northern Station is a few steps away.
Adapted from a Google aerial map
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La rue du Chat qui Pêche, 5th (between Notre-Dame and Saint-Michel) |
A medieval street that survived
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Demolition covered the entire territory east of rue Saint-Denis, where the June barricades clustered:
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| Adapted from a document at the National Library / zoom |
Avoiding workers' presence explains why Parisian railway stations are on the outskirts, in contrast to London and New York.*
*Except the former Gare d'Orsay, built in 1898 across the river from the Louvre, when strikes had replaced revolts.
"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, cited in Atlas du Paris haussmannien, p. 93
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Those demolitions explain the rarity of medieval remains, the dreariness of much of the center and the rebuilding of the former working-class quarters in the homogeneous style adapted to the new bourgeoisie.
The Etienne Marcel crossroad
Photographer not named
1 boulevard Poissonnière, 9th district
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The metamorphosis continues until at least 1925...
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Piercing the boulevard Haussmann in 1925 / zoom |
But most is done in the 15 years
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