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Scenes from the Paris Flood of 1910
In the Great Paris Flood of 1910, the earliest and one of the most devastating effects is the flooding of the railroad lines and the Metropolitan subway lines, to which they are connected. All Paris's electrical systems run through the subway lines. The subways are also connected to the sewers and the railroad lines--and the subways are still under construction.
The Seine rapidly finds all the weak points in the construction, and the Metro and the railroads fill with river water and raw sewage.
Of all the disasters of the flood, the most spectacular is the flooding of the Gare d'Orsay (now the Musee d'Orsay). This enormous new railway station is the terminus of a line that runs beside the Seine; when the line floods, the station does too, creating, in the words of eyewitnesses, "a two-block-long swimming pool" deep enough to drown railway engines.
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In this rare postcard, you can see the first stages of the flood in the Metro. This station, St.-Michel, is still under construction. From about January 19, when this picture was taken, water begins flooding from the unfinished railroad terminus into the Metro lines. |
| The Gare d'Orsay is the terminus of the Invalides line, which runs beside the river. As the water rises, the Invalides line itself becomes a river, which pours into the Gare d'Orsay. This is the second floor (American style) of the station. In this enormous, eerie swimming pool, two engines have been trapped on the track level; the flood has reached to above their smokestacks. |
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When the Gare d'Orsay flood reaches the second floor of the station, the windows break and the water runs out and downhill, flooding the neighborhood around the rues de Lille, Grenelle, and l'Universite. These policemen are examining broken windows in the sidewalk on the rue de Bellechasse. The water has simply pushed them upward from the surrounding sidewalk, concrete, glass blocks, and all. |
| The rue de Lille about January
24, 1910. The flood continues to rise until it stands just under the bottom of the windows of this building. The ladder in the foreground, on the left, is probably being used to climb into the building. |
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More pages on the Great
Paris Flood of 1910:
Fighting the Flood | No
Bridge is Safe | A Panorama
of the Flood | Desolation
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