Porte de Vincennes de Paris

The Porte de Vincennes is marked by two massive, identical stone columns topped with bronze statues of female figures representing victory. It stands where the old city walls once defined the limits of Paris. Napoleon the Third ordered the construction of these gates in the mid-nineteenth century to control the flow of traffic into the capital. During the liberation of Paris in nineteen forty-four, the first American tanks of the Second Armored Division rumbled through this gate to begin the city's rescue.