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Copyright: Kraemer 1900, o.S.

The dimensions of the project had expanded to such an extent since the exposition of 1867 that it was no longer conceivable to stage the event in a single building erected especially for the exposition, as had been the case thirty years beforehand. Proposals to relocate the exposition to the city's outskirts or to show only parts of the exposition in the centre of Paris were put forward with the aim of overcoming the problem of space. However, the preparatory commission insisted on a single exposition site in the inner-city area, opting for a proposal from Picard which provided for a more centralistic form of organisation. His plan involved linking up four originally unconnected districts of the city by incorporating the course of the Seine. The construction of the Pont d'Iéna connected the area around the Trocadero with the Champs de Mars situated on the opposite bank of the Seine to form a main exposition complex.


The site continued along the banks of the Seine up to the area in front of the Hôtel des Invalides, where it was planned to build a second centre around the river's axis. A newly built esplanade led from the Hôtel des Invalides and over the new Seine bridge, the Pont Alexandre III, to the opposite bank. The continuation of the esplanade, the Avenue Nicolas II, extended the route past the two planned palaces of art to the Champs Elysées - a magnificent street system which soon received praise as a brilliant invention for the exposition. The Park de Vincennes, situated outside of Paris, played rather a secondary role as an additional exhibition site for the fields of agriculture and transport, particularly the railways and the newly invented automobile.

For transportation purposes, the complete inner-city site was served by an electrical elevated railway which provided access to the Champs de Mars, the banks of the Seine and the Esplanade des Invalides via a circular track. Running parallel to the elevated railway was the 3.5 kilometre-long "trottoir roulant" - a wooden pavement moving at two speeds of 4 and 8 km/h which was installed above street level and was accessible via transport belts without steps. Its novelty appeal made it the most popular means of transport, with up to 160,000 happily rolling through the exposition site each day.


Inside the exposition palaces, escalators were available for use for the first time, subject to a charge. The greatest individual comfort, however, was offered by service staff who transported the visitors in wheelchairs. The structure of the city's transport system was altered by the opening of the first metro lines. Hector Guimard's metro entrances still attest to the stylistic prominence which Art Nouveau enjoyed at the turn of the century.


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The Paris 1900 World Exposition
Linking city districts
Year: 1900City: ParisCountry: France
Duration: 15th April - 12th November 1900

 

 

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