Terminus 1900: The Métro and the Universal Expositions in Fin-de-siècle Paris

ABSTRACT

In 1900, two spectacles of technological progress, artistic invention, and political ambition were unveiled in Paris: The universal exposition and Line 1 of the Paris Métro. This essay considers schemes for underground and elevated Métro systems that were published from 1870 to 1900 and argues that these speculative designs map new configurations of technology, urban space, and cultural identity onto fin-de-siècle Paris. Ultimately, Métro projects function as showcases of the modern city, and they draw on and participate in the promotional logic and narrative of national pride on display at the contemporary expositions.

KEYWORDS:

• Universal expositions
• Paris Métro
• urban modernity
• public transportation
• Albert Robida
• visual culture
• Louis Heuzé

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

Caroline Grubbs is a lecturer of French at Southern Methodist University. Her research focuses on speculative fiction, urban culture, and the intersection of literature and technology in late 19th-century France, with a specific interest in the work of Albert Robida.

Notes

1 In 1845, a civil engineer by the name of Florence de Kérizouet published a project for a partially underground railway line that would directly link the Gare de Lyon and the Gare du Nord. An article in the August 2 edition of L’Illustration describes the project and includes several illustrations. Though de Kérizouet’s project is often cited as the earliest example of a design for an urban railway in Paris (see Evenson (1979) and Ovenden (2009)), Papayanis (2004) awards the title to engineer Louis Léger Vallée for his project from 1837. Papayanis notes that it was Vallée’s grandson who, in an 1892 letter published in Le Génie civil, argued that the history of the Paris Métro began with Vallée’s design for an underground extension of national railway lines into the city (2004, 203).

2 For a detailed analysis of the political battle between the City of Paris and the State for control of the Métro, see Cottereau (2004).

3 For a study of the press’s reporting on electrical malfunctions on the Métro and tramways, and at the exposition, see Soppelsa (2013, 281–287). The articles from Le Figaro (20 July 1900) and La Presse (20 and 27 July 1900) on the opening of the Métro that I cite are also discussed in Soppelsa’s work (2013, 283–284).

4 Criticisms of the Métro are only one element in the broader narrative of infrastructural disaster at the 1900 Exposition that Soppelsa constructs. He also examines reports of construction accidents, traffic congestion, tramway collisions, water shortages, and sewer discharge to show that

although the exposition was intended to bolster French patriotism and technoscientific prowess, it also undermined them … the critics contested the mainstream and official view of the exposition with a running tally of the event’s dirty laundry, collected in the faits divers and editorials. (2013, 297–298)

5 For a literary and cultural analysis of the omnibus as a symbol of urban modernity and shifting social dynamics in nineteenth-century France, see Belenky (2019).

6 La Société des ingénieurs civils published a presentation of the seven proposals studied by the special commission in 1872. See Desgrange (1872). Nicholas Papayanis devotes a chapter of Planning Paris Before Haussmann to early underground Métro projects from Louis Léger Vallée (1837), Hector Horeau (1844), Florence de Kérizouet (1845), Édouard Brame and Eugène Flachat (1853), and Louis Le Hir (1854). Brame and Flachat’s plan was selected for consideration by the commission.

7 Arsène Olivier de Landreville published the first edition of his project entitled Chemins de fer dans Paris et les grandes villes in 1863. He imagined an extremely high viaduct that could pass over the tops of buildings and stations featuring elegant metalwork See Olivier de Landreville 1872.

8 For example, naval officer Edouard Mazet developed a project in 1887 for a ‘nouveau chemin de fer métropolitain sans rails, ni wagons, ni ponts, ni tunnels’ that consisted of a string of gondolas hanging from lampposts. See Lauriot (1997, 37).

9 Soppelsa (2011) analyzes Robida’s cartoon as an intervention in the Métro debates and argues that Robida frames the Métro as a visual problem, ignoring its political or technical dimensions.

10 For a discussion of the Eiffel Tower, the 1889 Exposition, and urban modernity, see Levin (2010).

11 Albert Robida was the architect of the Vieux Paris exhibit for the 1900 Exposition. This sprawling, full-scale replica of historical Parisian architecture immersed visitors in the culture of medieval Paris and was a huge commercial success. Robida’s celebration of French architectural heritage in 1900 is a rebuttal to the ‘embellished’ Paris of 1889 imagine in his cartoon. For an analysis of the Vieux Paris exhibit and its role in the conservation movement, see Emery (2005).

12 A brochure for American travel company Raymond and Whitcomb’s ten-day tour of the Exposition explains that

the new Metropolitan or underground railway, the first of its kind constructed in Paris, will have its western terminus near the Trocadero palace, and within a short distance of the particular hotel which will be made the headquarters of our passengers. (Raymond and Whitcomb 1900, 12–13)

The brochure gives its American readers much more detail regarding tramway and omnibus routes.

13 For a discussion of art nouveau at the 1900 Exposition, see Jullian (1974).