Gare du Nord - Paris, France
N 48° 52.804 E 002° 21.289
31U E 452696 N 5414324
The Gare du Nord (North Station) is a railway station located in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, France.
Waymark Code: WMMX56
Location: Île-de-France, France
Date Posted: 11/18/2014
Views: 28
"Paris Nord (or Gare du Nord, "North Station") is one of the six large terminus stations of the SNCF mainline network for Paris, France. It offers connections with several urban transportation lines, including Paris Métro, RER and Buses. By the number of travelers, at around 190 million per year, it is the busiest railway station in Europe and the busiest in the world outside Japan.
Gare du Nord is the station for trains to Northern France and to international destinations in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The station complex was designed by the French architect Jacques Hittorff and built between 1861 and 1864. It is situated in the 10th arrondissement of Paris.
History
The first Gare du Nord was built by Bridge and Roadway Engineers on behalf of the Chemin de Fer du Nord company, which was managed by Léonce Reynaud, professor of architecture at the École Polytechnique. The station was inaugurated on 14 June 1846, the same year as the launch of the Paris–Amiens–Lille rail link. Since the station was found to be too small in size, it was partially demolished in 1860 to provide space for the current station. The original station's façade was removed and transferred to Lille.
The chairman of the Chemin de Fer du Nord railway company, James Mayer de Rothschild, chose the French architect Jacques Ignace Hittorff to design the current station. Construction lasted from May 1861 to December 1865, but the new station opened for service while still under construction in 1864. The façade was designed around a triumphal arch and used many slabs of stone. The building has the usual U-shape of a terminus station. The main support beam is made out of cast iron. The support pillars inside the station were made at Alston & Gourley's ironworks in Glasgow in the United Kingdom, the only country with a foundry large enough for the task.
The sculptural display represents the principal cities served by the company. Eight of the nine most majestic statues, crowning the building along the cornice line, illustrate destinations outside France, with the ninth figure of Paris in the center. Fourteen more modest statues representing northern French cities are lower on the façade."
--Wikipedia (
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