La Petite Ceinture

You are standing near La Petite Ceinture, a relic of nineteenth century infrastructure that once circled the entirety of Paris. While the city streets above buzz with modern life, these sunken tracks served as a vital industrial artery beginning in eighteen fifty two. Engineers designed the circular route to connect the city's major train stations, which were otherwise isolated from one another by the rival companies that owned them. By nineteen hundred, the line reached its peak of influence, transporting thirty nine million passengers during the Universal Exposition.