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| > home > panoramas > Ile aux Cygnes |
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Between the pont de Grenelle bridge and pont de Bir-Hakeim bridge on the Seine River, there is a little tree-lined, paved path on a sort of dike or pier running in the center of the river from one bridge to another. This path, called the allée des Cygnes (“Promenade of the Swans”) is very quiet and pretty, and far from the traffic of the city. It’s a popular spot to walk or jog. At the west side of the island, the second in hight (after New York) Statue de la Liberte looks in the direction of America. |
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The author of the project was Louis BIETTE, in association with the contractors DAYDE and PILLE. Formige, a Paris municipal architect, was responsible for the decoration. He hired three sculptors; Gustave Michel, who produced the cast iron groups aligned with the piers at the arch springs. There are two groups, one representing "boatmen", the other "ironsmith-riveters". For their part, Coutan and Injalbert are the authors of four allegorical figures decorating the structure on the Ile des Cygnes.The Pont de Bir-Hakeim is in fact comprised of two unequal metal structures, each comprising three cantilever type spans, separated by a monumental stone structure on the upstream tip of the Ile des Cygnes. The metropolitan railway viaduct on the top rests on a series of elegant pillars, whose highly ornate decoration unfortunately disappeared when the structure was strengthened from 1930 to 1940. Called the Passy viaduct until 1948, the work was renamed the Pont de Bir-Hakeim to commemorate General Koenig's June 1942 victory over Rommel in the Libyan desert. |
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This magnificent exchange of gifts illustrates a declaration delivered by French ambassador Jule J. Jusserand on the occasion of the 1916 ceremony at which Liberty's torch was first lighted with electricity: "Not to a man, not to a nation, the statue was raised. It was raised to an idea - an idea greater than France or the United States: the idea of Liberty.". |
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The river is 780 km (485 miles) long, France's second longest (after the Loire which is 1020 km (634 miles) long). In ancient times the Seine was known by the Latin name Sequana. The Seine's main tributaries are the Aube, Marne and Oise rivers from the north and the Yonne and Eure rivers from the south. It is connected with canals to the Scheldt (also called the Escaut), Meuse, Rhine, Saône and Loire rivers. The Seine rises in the French région of Burgundy, in the département of Côte-d'Or, 30 km (18 miles) northwest of Dijon at a height of 471 metres (1545 feet). The river then flows through Troyes to Paris. In Paris, narrowed between high stone embankments, the river carries commercial barges, waterbuses and large tourist boats (bateaux-mouches). From the water, fine views are seen of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay (housing Paris' collection of Impressionist art), the Conciergerie and the Eiffel Tower. The northern side of the river is described as the Right Bank (Rive Droite) and the southern side as the Left Bank (Rive Gauche). |
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The structure was built from 1887-1889 as the entrance arch for the Exposition Universelle (1889), a World's fair marking the centennial celebration of the French revolution. It was inaugurated on March 31, 1889, and opened on May 6. 300 steel workers joined together 18,038 pieces of steel, using two and a half million rivets. Considering the safety standards in place at the time, it is remarkable that only one worker died in the construction of the tower (during the installation of Otis Elevator's lifts (elevators)). The tower is 300 metres (986 feet) tall, not including the television antenna on top, which adds another 20 meters, and weighs over 10,000 tons (over 21,000,000 pounds). It was the tallest structure in the world for forty years. Maintenance on the tower includes 50 tons of three graded tones of brown paint every 7 years. Depending on the ambient temperature, the top of the Eiffel Tower will shift away from the sun by eight centimetres because of expansion of the sun-warmed metal. Perhaps predictably, the tower met with resistance from the public when it was first built, many thought it would be an eyesore. Today it is widely considered to be one of the most striking pieces of architectural art in the world. One of the great Hollywood movie clichés is that the view from a Parisian window always includes the Eiffel Tower. Originally, Eiffel had a permit to leave the tower standing for 20 years, more than recouping his expenses, but as it proved valuable for communication purposes, it was allowed to stay after the end of the permit. Events On January 12, 1908, the first long-distance radio message was sent from the tower. View from the Tower across the River Seine, showing the Trocadero gardens and the Palais de Chaillot. A pleasure boat cruises on the river.Father Theodor Wulf in 1910 took observations of radiant energy radiation at the top and bottom of the Eiffel Tower, discovering more than was expected at the top, and thereby detecting what are today known as cosmic rays. In 1925, the con artist Victor Lustig twice "sold" the Eiffel Tower for scrap. In 1929, the Tower lost the title of the World's tallest structure when the Chrysler Building was completed in New York. When Adolf Hitler visited occupied Paris in 1940, the lift cables were cut by the French so that he would have to climb the 1792 steps to the summit - the part to repair them was allegedly impossible to obtain because of the war, though it was working again within hours of the departure of the Nazis. He chose to stay on the ground. On January 3, 1956 a fire damaged the top of the tower. In 1959 the present radio antenna was added to the top. In the 1980s an old restaurant and its supporting iron scaffolding midway up the tower was dismantled; this was purchased and reconstructed in New Orleans, Louisiana, originally as the Tour Eiffel Restaurant, more recently known as the Red Room. In the year 2000, flashing lights and several high power searchlights were installed on the tower. Since then the light show has become a nightly event. The searchlights on top of the tower make it a beacon in Paris' night sky. The tower received its 200,000,000th guest on November 28, 2002. At 19:20 on July 22, 2003, a fire occurred at the top of the tower in the broadcasting equipment room. The entire tower was evacuated; the fire was extinguished after forty minutes, and there were no reports of injuries. Reproductions and Imitations Several reproductions of the Eiffel Tower (often smaller-scale) are found in: • Tokyo, Japan called the Tokyo Tower (13 meters higher than the original, scale 1.04:1) • Blackpool, England - Blackpool Tower 158 meters (519 feet) tall is not quite a free-standing structure; it stands above the Tower Circus complex, where the four "legs" can be seen. • Guatemala City, Guatemala - Torre del Reformador, 75 meters tall • Paradise, Nevada, near Las Vegas, USA (scale 1:2) • Prague, Czech Republic (scale 1:5), Petrinska rozhledna, built in 1891 • Shenzhen, China (scale 1:3) • King's Island theme park, Ohio (scale 1:3) • an imitation in front of Paris Hotel, Las Vegas, 165 meters (540 feet) high (scale 1:2). • Wembley Park, London - Watkins' Tower • Woodwards Building, Vancouver, Canada. A small reproduction on the roof of the building is topped by a signature neon "W". This building is now being converted into social housing. • Paramount Park's Kings Dominion, Virginia. A 84 m (275-ft) reproduction is available for the amusement of visitors. (scale 1:3.59) |
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You have your own quality pictures, panoramics or QuicktimeVR from Paris. Are you fed up with keeping them in a box / on a CD / on a hard disk where no one can actually enjoy them ? Or you just wish to participate ? Contact me ! |
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| All photographs are copyright
"Eric Rougier / FromParis.com". Please, do not to use without
written authorization. The pyramid of the Louvre museum: Leoh Ming Pei, architect. "La Géode": Adrien Fainsilber, architect. The "Grande Arche": Otto van Spreckelsen, architect. Bibliotheque Nationale de France: Dominique Perrault, architect. Lighting of the Eiffel Tower is copyright "Société Nouvelle d'Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel". Some history texts are licensed to the public under the GNU Free Documentation License. Zoomify™ is a trademark of Zoomify Inc. QuickTime ™ and QuicktimeVR ™ are trademarks of Apple Computer. |
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